New threat to Seaton Hospital
Readers will remember that Seaton Hospital was threatened two years ago with the demolition of a wing which had been paid for entirely by the local community 30 years before. A huge public meeting elected the Seaton Hospital Steering Committee, of which I am secretary, and in June 2024 we submitted a plan to rent the wing and provide a range of health and wellbeing services. (It was assumed that the NHS would continue to provide services in the rest of the Hospital.)
15 months on, we still haven’t received a reply from NHS Property Services, the owner of the Hospital. This summer, however, Devon NHS’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) approached the Hospital’s League of Friends saying that they wished to withdraw NHS services from Seaton Hospital and offering to sell the entire hospital to the League.
The League have been trying to find out from the ICB (who presumably are acting together with Property Services), what is involved, and are still seeking further clarification.
Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, Jack Rowland, the chair of the Steering Committee, and I are concerned about the threatened loss of NHS services. Although at the moment, this is a stated intention rather than a firm plan, on Friday I took the matter to the Devon Health Scrutiny Committee, supported by our County Councillor, Paul Arnott. You can watch us on the DCC Health Scrutiny YouTube recording (I’m at 11 minutes, Paul is at 2 hours 38).
Health Scrutiny decided to put Community Hospitals, including Seaton, on their future agenda. Our MP, Richard Foord, also issued a strongly worded statement about the new threat.
Our full Steering Committee will meet on 2nd October to discuss the whole situation, and we will send out further updates.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 