Save Seaton Hospital

22/06/2024

Here's a statement from Jack Rowland, Chairman of the Save Seaton Hospital Steering Committee.

The Seaton Hospital Steering Committee has been made aware of comments on its work by an election candidate. We are a non-party organisation elected by a large public meeting last November, an…

21/06/2024

The Save Seaton Hospital steering committee have now presented the Business Plan for the community use of the threatened hospital wing to the NHS. Thank you to the Committee for their hard work on our behalf. Full details are in this link.

rpt The Hospital steering committee has issued the following press release: “Following six months’ discussion with over 30 community organisations, the cross-party Seaton Hospital Steering Committe…

20/02/2024

HOSPITAL UPDATE FROM MARTIN SHAW.
We are holding another OPEN MEETING for supporters to hear more about developments in the hospital negotiations at 3.30 pm on Thursday
29th February in the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, Seaton. You are all welcome.
We are making progress in our attempts to secure the future of Seaton Hospital. However, it will be some months before
we can be sure that the threat - to a whole wing of the building, originally paid for entirely by the local community - has
been removed.
These are the recent developments:
1. Unfortunately, Devon NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) has now officially confirmed its intention to hand back
the entire wing to NHS Property Services, including first floor offices and not just the ground-floor ward area. This
also means that offices will be moved into the space that was used for vaccinations - we protested about that, since
we believe that it's valuable to have a local vaccination facility, but were overruled.
2. However, we are very pleased to report that East Devon District Council has declared the Hospital an Asset of
Community Value, which gives the community first say if the wing were to be sold off, and will help us in our bid for
funding to convert the wing for new uses.
3. Our discussions with potential users of parts of the wing are continuing, and one of our members is now being
employed to work up our plans.
4. This week we had a constructive meeting in the Hospital with the ICB and Property Services, at which we agreed to
meet monthly until the summer, by which time we hope to be able to show them that we have a credible plan for the
community to take over the wing for use by local health and wellbeing organisations.
5. We are also pleased that our MP, Richard Foord (who is a member of our committee) has obtained another debate
in Parliament, this time about the accountability of NHS Property Services, on 23rd February. He hopes to interest
MPs from other areas in the question of how community hospitals are treated.

20/02/2024

Dotty & May explain all about our hospital. A pity they're not on the NHS board! https://www.facebook.com/share/v/QNCU5sd3epvEdJJA/

26/01/2024

Dear supporter,
The Steering Committee which was elected at the public meeting in November is continuing to work hard. We're developing a detailed proposal to use empty space in the Hospital for activities that will benefit the health of the local community - and remove the threat of demolition. As always with these things, it's complicated and is taking time.
We took our case to the Devon Health Scrutiny meeting again this week. Councillors were very supportive, and representatives of NHS Devon and the NHS Property Services company, the Hospital's legal owners, committed themselves to working collaboratively with the local community.
We were joined by community hospital campaigners from Teignmouth and also Okehampton, where NHS Devon are now doing exactly the same thing as they are doing at Seaton, handing back ward space to Property Services. I was interviewed again on Spotlight.
Meanwhile, Richard Foord MP has again been busy for us in Parliament, presenting our 9,000 strong petitions there and arranging to meet national representatives of NHS Property Services.

We're keeping up the pressure and will keep you posted!
Martin

20/01/2024

Our campaign to save Seaton Hospital returns to the Scrutiny Committee at County Hall next Wednesday, and it would be great to see you there if you can make it. The campaign will be boosted this time by supporters of Okehampton Community Hospital, where the ICB are also trying to hand back a ward to Property Services. Together with the campaigners from Teignmouth whose case is also coming to the Committee, that will make a three-community protest, under the banner of Save Devon's Community Hospitals.

We will be meeting outside County Hall at 1.30, with placards. The Committee is at 2.15 and Jack and I will again be speaking, along with Teignmouth and Okehampton colleagues. We are talking to supportive members of the Committee about what they can best do to support us.

Richard Foord had intended to be present, but now needs to speak in a debate on international affairs in Parliament, and is sending a letter of support to the Scrutiny Committee. He presented our petition in Parliament two days ago.

Planned discussions with the ICB and Property Services have been postponed, but they dropped their plan to hand back the wing on 31 December, after we pointed out that handing back the whole wing would be exceeding the decision the Board had made, which only referred to the ward area. So pressure does work.

We are hoping to meet them on 1 February at the Hospital. In the meanwhile, our Steering Committee is meeting next week to discuss progress on our own plans for using the empty space.

03/01/2024

Happy New Year. We have some good news to start 2024 - just before Christmas, Devon NHS's board postponed its handover of part of Seaton Hospital to the Property Services company, which was due to have happened on 31st December.
The delay came after we asked for the original report that the board had approved. We found that it referred only to the 'former ward accommodation' - the ground floor of the wing that they want to hand over - and NOT the wing as a whole, including first floor spaces which the NHS are still using. We pointed out that they therefore did not have authority to dispose of the whole wing.

We were also disturbed to see that the report claimed: 'The One Public Estate function hosted by Devon County Council are supportive of a disposal and have offered financial support of up to £20k per unit through the Brownfield Land Funding scheme to help with feasibility studies should a disposal result in housing units being developed.' One Public Estate links public sector bodies' estate policies, and what they have told me is rather different: 'Devon and Torbay OPE Partnership has not had informal or formal conversations about the disposal of parts of Seaton Hospital.' I am going to ask Devon NHS what has been going on.

The way forward. Our Seaton Hospital Steering Committee is moving ahead with work on how to use any spaces which are eventually handed back to NHS Property Services, and we will keep you updated on progress.
Devon Health Scrutiny Committee is expecting to hear back from the Devon NHS board and Property Services at its meeting on 24 January. We will be discussing the agenda before the meeting with East Devon councillors who are members of the Committee.
We'll let you know when there are further developments.

Thank you again for all your hard work with leaflet distrubution, collecting petition signatures and staging demos - it makes a difference!

10/12/2023

Thank you to everyone who said they would come for pre-Christmas drinks at the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, Seaton, this Wednesday from 6.30.
If you haven't said you would come but find you're free, why not drop in and join us for an hour or two? It will a good opportunity to celebrate a job well done in making sure everyone knows we will protect our hospital.
We look forward to seeing you there.

06/12/2023

Here is ITV West Country News report on the demo & meeting at Exeter today, in case you missed it.

06/12/2023

SAVE SEATON HOSPITAL PROGRESS REPORT
by Martin Shaw, Secretary, Seaton Hospital Steering Ctte.
The Steering Committee had a private meeting with NHS Devon yesterday, 5/12/23.
Kirstine House, the CEO of the League of Friends, Cllr Paul Arnott, Leader of EDDC, Jack Rowland and I met with Dr Sarah Wollaston and her colleagues from the NHS Devon's Integrated Care Board yesterday.

They are proceeding with the transfer of the wing to NHS Property Services on 31 December, but it may take up to 2 years for Property Services to come to a final decision, giving us time to work up our plans.
Dr Wollaston accepted that they still have a "moral responsibility" for the future of the hospital and the threatened wing - I think all those letters you wrote had an effect.
NHS Devon agreed an action plan with us in which, in addition to giving us the practical and financial information that we have asked for, they will work with us to facilitate our negotiations with Property Services.
We presented our petitions to NHS Devon at their public Board meeting this morning:

We gathered an incredible 9,150 signatures in barely 3 weeks from a local population of under 15,000. I presented them to Dr Wollaston at County Hall today - Spotlight and ITV West Country News were there, so watch tonight! Thanks to all who signed and, especially, those who leafleted, collected signatures and gave their time to come to Exeter. Dr Wollaston acknowledged the huge community feeling which we have shown in recent weeks.

I also asked questions and commented at their Board meeting. See the previous post for a link to the meeting video.
Dr W publicly stated: "we will definitely be working with you as we work with NHS Property Services".
Next steps:
(1) Our Steering Committee will be meeting on Thursday 14th December to discuss how to develop our plan for the space in question.
(2) Supporters are invited to a Christmas social evening at the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, at 6.30 on Wednesday 13th December - please email me if you are thinking of coming, so that we have an idea of the numbers.
(3) The issue comes back to the Devon Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee on 24th January, which should receive reports from NHS Devon and Property Services.

06/12/2023

Here is a link to the video record of this morning's ICB meeting. The subject of Seaton Hospital is discussed in the first 4 minutes of the video.

NHS Devon Integrated Care Board - 6th December 2023

06/12/2023

Karen Rogers gave a really good summary of Seaton's feelings about the hospital to ITV News this morning. The full report will be on ITV West Country News at 6pm.