OKEHAMPTON’S mayor says she is ‘still fighting’ for a future for the town’s hospital — which could include reopening beds for respite care for dementia patients.

Councillor Jan Goffey is spearheading negotiations to lease part of the building back from the NHS to be run by the community.

She suggested that Redvers ward, one of the two at the hospital which closed last summer, could be used to provide respite care for dementia sufferers ‘which is desperately needed’.

Meanwhile, talks are ongoing with Exeter-based charity Hospiscare about the possibility of the closed Dartmoor ward being re-opened to provide hospice care.

‘It is all very fluid at the moment,’ said Cllr Goffey. ‘We haven’t got anything pinned down as yet and we don’t want to give people false hopes but we are still fighting and nothing has happened to make us think that we can’t move forward with this.

‘We have still got our 42 health clinics taking place at the hospital and we have now got chemotherapy treatment taking place there thanks to FORCE. We have got a combined set up with the NHS and social services staff working together in the building, so there’s joined up thinking there. Things are still going on at the hospital; it is as fully utilised as it can be without being having any beds open.

‘That of course is our ultimate aim, to get the beds re-opened. There is such a demand for dementia respite and things like that. That is the plan, to be able to use it for that, because that is a shortage of professional dementia care in a secure environment, which of course Redvers ward was.

‘Hospiscare is also still keen on providing palliative care in the hospital in Dartmoor ward. We are all keeping in touch and keeping each other motivated. There is still a long way to go, we have got to get a lease from the NHS, we have got to get staffing, but we are still fighting.’

Her comments came as it emerged that the organisation of the NHS in Devon is set to change from the start of April.

A single Integrated Care System, combining health and social care, is being introduced by the NHS across Devon. It was discussed at a meeting of Devon County Council’s health and wellbeing board at County Hall in Exeter on March 8.

Cllr Goffey is hoping for a response from the NHS on the community taking on the lease of part of the hospital building soon.

The NHS closed the in-patient beds at the hospital last summer, while the maternity beds remain temporarily closed.

Cllr Goffey said the need for dementia respite care had been revealed by a recent public a consultation by the Health and Wellbeing Group in Okehampton and Dr Alison Round, clinical lead at the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

‘Because of the preponderantly elderly population we have got, this was identified as the greatest need at the moment,’ she added.