Seaton Hospital – why we are on hold
This email from Jack Rowland has just gone to Hospital campaign supporters and the press.
Well here we are in mid September and you may be wondering what has been happening with our campaign to utilise the empty wing at Seaton Hospital for the benefit of the community.
You may recall that a steering group was set up as a result of the public meeting held on 3 November last year. At that meeting speakers highlighted the action that may be taken by NHS Property Services (NHSPS) as NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) had been paying £300k per annum in rent and maintenance to NHSPS ever since the wing became empty as a result of the decision made to remove inpatient beds from the site. In view of the financial position of the ICB and the pressure they are under to cut expenditure they had indicated they wanted to stop paying the £300k per annum.
Our steering group has been recognised by NHSPS and the ICB as the body to consult and negotiate with and a timetable was established at the beginning of this year to have monthly meetings starting in February with the agreed target of the steering group producing a business plan by the end of June.
Thanks to the tremendous work carried out by a member of our steering group, Ben Tucker, along with Kirstine House and support from myself a business plan was submitted to NHSPS and the ICB in mid June. In addition to producing the business plan Ben arranged and held meetings with third parties interested in leasing space in the empty wing that also complied with the vision we had for using the space.
As a result of those meetings many of the third parties signed expressions of interest and these were built into the business plan. In order to fund the building works and contribute to the first year running costs we also submitted a grant funding application to the Government backed Community Ownership Fund by their deadline date earlier this year.
So why no further news since the end of June?
Quite simply the calling of the General Election on 4 July and the resulting change of government has put everything on ice in obtaining a definitive response to the business plan and the grant application.
Since July we have been following up on both subjects and we are due to meet NHSPS and the ICB on 19 September. We understand that NHSPS are submitting a paper regarding our business plan to the next board meeting of NHSPS by which time we also hope to have received news on the grant application. However, it appears that many public bodies are waiting for the new Chancellor’s Budget announcement on 30 October and there is a risk that decisions will be delayed until after this.
Jack Rowland
Chair – on behalf of the Seaton Hospital Steering Group
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 