From: Professor Martin Shaw (secretary, Seaton Hospital Steering Committee)

The campaign to save Seaton Hospital’s threatened wing comes to the Devon NHS’s Integrated Care Board meeting in Exeter tomorrow morning.

• I will PRESENT PETITIONS, signed by over 75% of the adult population in the Seaton area, to Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of Devon NHS, on the steps of County Hall at 9.30.
• Other campaigners will be supporting me with placards.

We will then go into the ICB meeting at 10.30, where THE BOARD WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS which we have submitted, given below. Our questions will be answered early in the meeting, after which we will leave. 

Questions:

1. Were Finance Committee and Board members informed, before their meetings in September and October respectively, that Seaton Hospital was established on the initiative of and part-funded by the League of Friends, on the understanding that the building would be run as an NHS hospital, and that the building of the wing in question was paid for 100 per cent by public donations? Does the Board now accept that, in the light of these considerations, it should have consulted with Seaton stakeholders before making this decision? 

2. Does the Board now accept that it was mistaken to quote the 2016-17 consultation on the withdrawal of the beds in justification of its recent decision? First, the consultation did not concern the future use of ward space. Second, its results showed that Seaton residents were overwhelmingly opposed to the withdrawal, and the last-minute switch of Seaton’s beds to Sidmouth, without proper justification, discredited the outcome in the eyes of the local community?

3. Will the Board agree to the request of the Devon Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee that the proposed disposal is not implemented until they have explored and discussed the long-term future provision of NHS/health and wellbeing services for Seaton and Colyton residents, and reported on this to the Scrutiny Committee, as it has requested, in January 2024?