Following the news that NHS Devon is planning to return the empty hospital wards in Okehampton Community Hospital to NHS Property Services, three local Liberal Democrats are campaigning to keep the wards within the NHS and reopen them for local people.

West Devon borough councillor George Dexter, supported by former Okehampton mayor Jan Goffey and North Tawton town councillor Christian Martin, has launched a petition and is urging residents to sign in order to persuade the NHS to reconsider reopening the wards which have been closed since 2017.

“These wards were originally intended for patient recovery and recuperation close to their home,” said Cllr Goffey. “When the hospital was originally built local people raised over £250,000 to help fund it. It’s a tragedy we lost these recovery beds in 2017.

“It’s also a scandal that the NHS has notionally been paying £200,000 a year for these wards to lie empty when they could have been put to other uses such as a GP or dental practice.”

The councillors have calculated that the empty wards have cost the NHS £1.2 million in the six years they have been closed, paying out £200,000 a year in rent.

“Saving £200,000 by handing back the wards looks good on paper, but essentially it is one part of the NHS saying to the other ‘we won’t pay you anymore’. It is not much more than an accounting trick.

“But I am worried that the consequences could be severe, possibly even leading to the closure of the entire hospital and the whole site being sold for housing,” said Cllr Dexter.

“We must stop this, it’s the thin end of the wedge. Okehampton is experiencing explosive growth and really needs a fully functioning hospital.”

Lib Dems claim that underfunding of the NHS means that local NHS Devon services have run up a deficit of £46 million and that NHS management is now looking for cost saving measures.

Mark Wooding, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Central Devon, who has lent his support to the campaign, said: “At the moment Okehampton based patients are being sent to hospitals as far away as Sidmouth if they need to recover.

“Evidence suggests recovery is quicker when one is in familiar surroundings with family and friends nearby. It makes no sense that when we have a perfectly good facility available to local Okehampton people, their families are being forced to travel miles.

“Reopening these wards will also help to solve the problem of bed blocking, thus reducing NHS waiting lists. I’d urge everyone in Okehampton and the local villages, to sign the petition so we can demonstrate to the NHS that local people really do need this service,”

Local councillor Christian Martin, said: “The NHS is under huge cost pressure but these wards are not old or dilapidated. Their re-opening would make a real difference to Okehampton and the surrounding villages. Handing back these wards to the NHS Property Services could lead to them selling off the whole site, which is worth millions of pounds.”

Okehampton Town Council has also committed to working towards reopening the empty space to benefit the local community but is battling current Government policy which is not to reopen closed cottage hospitals.

But Mr Wooding has said that with the ongoing bed-blocking cris, reopening community wards could help resolve the problem and hopes that the petition will persuade the Government to reconsider their position.

He said: “People ask me what is the point of a petition when Government policy is against so-called ‘cottage' hospitals?” I’d say this. With hospital waiting lists at over seven million and bed blocking an endemic problem, in part because hospitals struggle to discharge patients into care, it’s hard to argue current policy is working.

"Clearly the funding of the NHS is part of the issue, but I’d argue that some thought needs to be given to organisation. The greater centralisation of health provision seems to be being driven by cost considerations rather than care outcomes. If we don’t argue for more locally based care, and petitions show that this is what people want, then it will never be on the agenda. Cottage, recovery or recuperation hospitals, whatever you call them, could be part of the solution to ballooning waiting lists. Petitions are a way of saying ‘please listen … here is an alternative point-of-view that is worth listening to."

The petition can be found here.