Why this petition matters
The petition was started by Seaton resident, Martin Shaw, who explains why it’s needed:
The Seaton area community paid half of the cost of building the Hospital in the 1980s. The NHS agreed to own and run it with NHS services for the local community.
In 1991, a new wing was added paid for 100 per cent by the community. The Devon NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) have now decided to hand this wing back to NHS Property Services, a company which charges full market rents and prices for ‘surplus’ buildings. The rent demanded is far beyond any community organisation – they could sell it off and it could be demolished.
The wing is only empty because the NHS stripped it off its beds in 2017, despite a consultation in which the local community vigorously opposed this idea. This time they have not even bothered to consult.
The Seaton area community is determined to stop this latest threat.
Please sign the petition!
Seaton has an elderly population and transport connections are not great. It’s wrong to force people to go to Exeter, especially as recovery from illness is enhanced enormously if the patient can be visited easily…and supported with additional care and food, for example. But, then, this is a government which cares little for the plight of the elderly and infirm, as the Covid Inquiry has frequently demonstrated.
We wrote about the dangers – and the plans to build houses on the hospital site – back in April 2021:
