Local MP Hugo Swire has pledged to do everything within his power to help realise plans to transform Budleigh Salterton Hospital into a Health and Wellbeing Hub.
This follows a meeting between Mr Swire and a number of the project’s stakeholders on Friday 1 April.
The project to transform the hospital into a multi-purpose health facility has experienced delays due to funding reasons at North Devon Healthcare Trust (NDHT) and more recently as a result of the planned change of Devon’s healthcare provider from NDHT to Royal Devon & Exeter Foundation Trust (RD&EFT) on 1 June 2016. This change means that the ownership of Budleigh Hospital would be transferred to NHS Property Services, which would be required to charge commercial rates for use of the hospital building. As many voluntary organisations are planning to use the new Hub this would make achieving the necessary income difficult.
However, the project’s stakeholders are currently exploring ways to break the current deadlock and are hopeful of a positive outcome.
Commenting after the meeting on Friday, Mr Swire said:
‘All those who attended Friday’s meeting have worked incredibly hard on this project and I am grateful to them all for providing me with such a comprehensive update.
‘From the outset I have been a passionate supporter of this project as I believe it takes an innovative approach to combining health and social care. I was pleased to play my part in getting the original business case approved following a meeting with the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, last year.
‘I, like my constituents in Budleigh, have been very frustrated by the delays to the project. I will be doing all that I can to help to find a constructive way forward and I will be writing to NEW Devon CCG, RD&EFT and NHS Property Services to urge them to work together to finally get this project moving. I will also raise this with Judith Dean, the Programme Director of Devon’s NHS Success Regime.
‘I am acutely aware that this ownership issue is not unique to Budleigh and I will be pursuing this matter to ensure that all of the community hospitals in my constituency are protected and improved’.