Mel Stride MP organised a meeting at Okehampton Town Hall today on the future of local healthcare provision. The meeting was triggered by the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW CCG) closing the inpatient beds at Okehampton Hospital a month ahead of schedule. Addressing the group Mr Stride urged the community to look ahead and fight to secure the best possible services from the hospital as it is turned into a Health and Wellbeing Centre. He said:
“Nobody wanted to see the inpatient beds go from Okehampton Hospital but we must now look at the opportunity of bringing valuable outpatient services to the hospital that we don’t currently have; services that residents might currently travel to Exeter or Plymouth to receive. With 500 people in local acute hospitals and 100 in community hospitals every day that could be cared for at home we must also hold the CCG to their promises that more people in Okehampton and the surrounding area will indeed be cared for in their own homes and not unnecessarily placed in Exeter or Tiverton.”
Mel concluded the meeting by saying that he would be organising a follow up event and seeking the attendance of senior personnel from the CCG and RD&E to explain exactly where they are with their plans for further services and the deeper community engagement that he was promised at his meeting with them around a month ago.
