OKEHAMPTON’S MP has asked for a ‘firm timeline for the delivery of services’ at Okehampton Hospital in a meeting with NHS bosses.

Mel Stride said he was ‘disappointed’ about the continued delay on plans for promised outpatients’ services at the hospital following the closure of all its inpatient beds last August.

The Central Devon MP met with Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Suzanne Tracey and integration director Adel Jones on Friday, May 25.

’The meeting I had with the chief executive was very direct — I made it clear that the lack of progress in bringing forward a plan for the new outpatient services at Okehampton Hospital is very disappointing,’ he said.

‘Residents in and around Okehampton deserve a firm timeline for the delivery of services. Some services have been provided, but the progress originally promised during a meeting I called in November last year has not materialised.’

The future of the hospital has been up in the air since the 16 inpatient beds, typically providing convalescence and care for older people, were closed by the NHS Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW CCG) last August.

Community consultations have thrown up the need for both palliative care and dementia respite care, which community campaigners are hoping to provide in part of the hospital building.

The birthing unit and maternity beds were also closed ‘temporarily’ last July by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital. After being extended several times, the closure has recently been extended until September, with the trust blaming continued midwife shortages.

In the meantime, outpatients clinics continue to be run at the hospital, including antenatal care and baby clinics.

A spokeswoman for the RD&E NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Last year the trust made a commitment to work in partnership with communities to better connect people, services and voluntary groups so people and communities can have greater control over their own health and wellbeing.

‘The first step, through community conversations, has been to understand the needs of the local population and then work together to explore how best we can collectively meet those needs.  In Okehampton, this work is being led by a community partnership group, chaired by Councillor Kevin Ball. 

‘Good progress has been made but we appreciate the current pace has meant we have not yet achieved our ambitions. We will continue to work with the community partnership group to agree and share the revised timetable.’

Town councillor Jan Goffey, who has set up the North Dartmoor Health Initiative to fight for the future of Okehampton Hospital, said ‘saving the building was a priority as without the building there could be no local services’.

‘I agree with our MP and thank him for his continued efforts regarding the service provision at our hospital,’ she said. ‘We were told originally the report on all the area hospitals would be completed in January, now we learn it is expected at the end of June.

‘I think it better that the report takes longer but maintains and possibly increases the services provided than something less detailed where we may find ourselves losing clinics or even the building. Saving the building is a priority as without the building there can be no local services.’

She again called for the maternity beds and the birthing unit to be reopened at the hospital as soon as possible. Currently, pregnant women in the Okehampton area must either opt for a home birth, or travel to the RD&E Hospital in Exeter to give birth.

‘The shortage of staff is blamed for the closure of our birthing unit but if only we had a doctor based at the hospital, midwife monitored births could tale place and save a 50-mile round trip for new mums and families,’ she said.