NHS
Seaton Hospital made Asset of Community Value by EDDC
East Devon District Council has declared Seaton Hospital an Asset of Community Value, which obliges its owners, NHS Property Services (NHSPS), to give the community first refusal in case of disposal.
NHSPS had opposed the move, but EDDC leader Paul Arnott (Lib Dem, Coly Valley), urged them to recognise local public opinion and refrain from appealing against the decision.
This is another step towards securing the whole of the hospital for continuing use as a centre for health and wellbeing.
Hospital supporters to celebrate campaign so far this Wednesday
Some of the people who’ve been actively campaigning for Seaton Hospital over the last few weeks are getting together for pre-Christmas drinks at the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, Seaton, this Wednesday from 6.30. Why not drop in and join us for an hour or two? (It will also be an opportunity to thank Tim who has let us meet there without charge.)
It’s open season on community hospitals – now Okehampton is in the firing line too
Health bosses to offload Okehampton’s empty hospital ward…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2023/12/08/does-this-internal-nhs-market-produce-sensible-decisions/
Hospital campaign begins with meeting of 40 in Beer
An excellent start to the campaign as forty people from Beer and Branscombe turned up to show their concern about the threat to the hospital. The meeting called by Cllr John Heath heard from Richard Foord MP, Paul Arnott, Jack Rowland and myself. We were all determined to block any sell-off, closure or demolition of any part of the building.
Johnson’s NHS promises are phoney and offer absolutely nothing for Devon.
- Nothing to help waiting times for cancer referrals, cancer treatments and elective surgery in our hospitals.
- Nothing to speed up waiting times in A&E.
- Nothing to bring more services to our community hospitals and give them a solid future.
- Nothing to address the chronic shortages of staff – indeed Johnson’s Brexit policy is driving away European doctors and nurses.
We – local people protesting with petitions and placards – managed to stop the CCG closing our community hospitals, as it was threatening to do two years ago after it removed half of the beds across Devon.
Who was on our side? Not the Tories – it was their funding cuts and national plans to sell off hospital buildings which pushed the CCG to bring forward their proposals in the first place.
No – the politicians who really supported local communities were grassroots campaigners like Claire Wright. Indeed her persistent challenge to Hugo Swire in East Devon was what frightened the Tories into dropping their drive to sell off the hospitals.
Health Scrutiny requests the CCG and NHS Property Services to sort out the Colyton Health Centre charges dispute with the GP Practice
My item at the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee yesterday led to the committee requesting the Devon Clinical Commissioning Group as well as NHS Property Services (the landlords) to get together with the Seaton and Colyton Medical Practice to sort out the excessive service charges demanded by NHSPS.
When ownership of Colyton Health Centre was handed over to NHS Property Services, maintenance charges soared while actual maintenance deteriorated. The matter is going to Health Scrutiny next week.
Seaton and Colyton Medical Practice have been fighting a long-running battle over rapidly rising charges for the Health Centre. Total maintenance charges rose from £5556 in 2015-16 (the last year before NHS Property Services took over) to £15,422.66 in 2016-17 and £34,657.39 in 2017-18, with the threat of their topping £40,000 this year. As users will realise, these are ludicrous figures for a building the size of a small bungalow, and the Practice is contesting them.
At the same time, actual service under the maintenance contract has been lamentable – the Centre was still without hot water last week after the boiler broke down in June. The Practice has brought the matter to my attention and I have put it on the agenda of the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee next Tuesday (pp 87-90).
NHS Property Services is a company set up by the Government to manage the NHS estate, with a mandate to charge commercial rents and, where appropriate, sell ‘surplus’ property. The Health Centre was handed over to the company in 2016, along with our community hospitals, when the RD&E took over our area from the North Devon trust.
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 17
- Next →
