Support for Okehampton Community Hospital has been backed by the town council.

North Dartmoor Health Initiative wrote to Okehampton Town Council with concerns about the current and future use of Okehampton Community Hospital as the town expands and the struggle to find dentists and doctors grows.

Jan Goffey, who runs the initiative and is a member of Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council, has asked town councillors to back her in asking the NHS to request using a funding pot of ‘planning gain’ money from developers building houses in the town for the hospital.

The so-called Section 106 money which is collected then distributed by the planning authority, in this case West Devon Borough Council, can be used to fund projects such as community buildings, recreation facilities and natural open spaces.

Cllr Goffey wrote: “The hospital is a major town asset that affects all the communities around us. We need to ensure that the ICB, the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care recognise the major underfunding of rural communities. The western rural areas suffer from diminished services compared to the wealthier and more populous eastern area.”

With a letter of support from the council, Cllr Goffey will attend the next ICB (integrated care board) meeting where the NHS and local councils work together to tackle health inequalities.

She intends to remind board members that this funding is available to local authorities and that they need to put requests in for funding for local health initiatives.

At the meeting of Okehampton Town Council on Monday, November 26, Cllr Tony Leech said: “What I’m hearing is that everything’s becoming central and residents have to travel miles and miles to receive healthcare.

“I just want this hospital to go back to what it was built for, a proper hospital in which respite care can be provided to help the whole of Okehampton.”

Mayor Cllr Allenton Fisher agreed with Cllr Leech, saying “that’s exactly what we all want.”

Cllr Goffey also pointed out in her letter that she hopes the new government will see community hospitals in rural areas prioritised again to relieve the pressure on Exeter and Plymouth hospitals.

Cllr Julie Yelland said: “I was shocked that the NHS never asked for contributions. They could have asked for section 106 contributions but they didn’t and I could never understand why, particularly with the death of NHS dentistry provision and the situation in our local hospital.”

Okehampton Town Council voted in favour of writing a letter of recommendation to the Integrated Care Board, backing Cllr Goffey’s request for Okehampton Community Hospital to receive Section 106 funding.

The North Dartmoor Health Initiative was set up to monitor what was happening at the hospital and ensure it had a future as a result of ward closures at the hospital in 2017. One ward offering respite care was closed and the birthing centre was shut ‘temporarily’ but has never been reopened.

When the hospital was originally built, local people raised £250,000 to help fund it.