AN online petition with the aim of stopping the closure of all 16 in-patient beds at Okehampton Hospital has now gone live on the UK Parliament website.

A Facebook group, ’Save Our Beds – Okehampton Hospital’, has already launched a paper petition to retain beds at the hospital but now has taken the petition online.

Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG) recently launched a public consultation on a proposal to cut half of the community hospital in-patient beds across its eastern locality.

NEW Devon CCG is considering five options, one which allows the public to present their preferred option of healthcare in the area, including the retention of beds at Okehampton Hospital.

The fifth option was only added after community feedback, including the launch of the ‘Save our Beds’ campaign by Okehampton residents.

The manual petition, which is now available in numerous towns including North Tawton and Hatherleigh, will be delivered to Westminster in December.

West Devon Borough Cllr Mike Davies, who is part of the ’Save Our Beds’ campaign, said that residents could only sign one online petition and one manual petition.'We are also encouraging people to protest at the CCG meeting at County Hall on November 3,' he said. A public meeting will be held in the Charter Hall, Okehampton on November 11 at 7.30pm. To sign the online petition visit https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/169206

For more information on where you can sign a manual petition visit the ’Save Our Beds’ page on Facebook.