Teignmouth Hospital site will be sold off to raise money for NHS
NHS bosses are now consulting on replacing the ageing community hospital with a new £8 million health and wellbeing centre and relocating other services to Dawlish.
Devon Clinical Commissioning Group is holding live events online, due to Covid-19 restrictions, to get feedback on the plans.
Opponents claim it would cost £2 million to upgrade the existing community hospital and that would preserve the site and ensure more services can be provided in the town.
NHS bosses say the new Wellbeing Centre will bring GP services, community health and care and voluntary sector services together under one roof in the centre of town, meaning that care can be much more easily coordinated for each patient.
The CCG is proposing to move the most highly-used community clinics – podiatry, physiotherapy and audiology – from Teignmouth Community Hospital into the new centre, along with consultant-led ear nose and throat clinics.
A report says: "These make up 73 percent of all outpatient appointments at the hospital. The CCG proposes that all other clinics and day case procedures move from Teignmouth Community Hospital to Dawlish Community Hospital, four miles away.
"And it proposes to reverse an earlier decision to provide 12 rehabilitation beds at Teignmouth Community Hospital, saying successful community services have made them unnecessary."
Dr Paul Johnson, clinical chair of Devon CCG, said: “The new Health and Wellbeing Centre would bring a first class, modern health facility to Teignmouth.
“The enhanced community team has done an excellent job in caring for people in their own homes or in care homes, looking after many more people than they would have been able to in 12 beds at Teignmouth Community Hospital.
“We believe our proposal is good, but we now want to hear from local people. For the next eight weeks we will be listening carefully to other ideas.”
Teignmouth’s biggest GP Practice, Channel View Medical Group, will move into the Health and Wellbeing Centre, saying it will help them attract new doctors and nurses – something that has recently been difficult.
Dr Carlie Karakusevic, a partner at Channel View, said: “The new centre would give us space for training doctors and other health and care staff and would be a real plus in attracting doctors to Teignmouth, as they wouldn’t have to shoulder responsibility for outdated premises that need high maintenance.
“We’re already working hard to coordinate care for each patient and their carer or carers, but being all together in the same modern building, working as one team, would make it easier to provide even more joined up care.”
If the proposal is approved, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust says it would no longer need Teignmouth Community Hospital and would be likely to sell it so the proceeds could be reinvested in the local NHS.
The NHS is holding live meetings online and is making available simple instructions on how to join them.
Meeting dates and times
Friday, 11 September 2.30pm-4pm
Thursday 17 September 10.30am-12noon
Wednesday 23 September 6pm-7.30pm
Tuesday 29 September 3pm-4.30pm
Monday 5 October 11.30am-1pm
Saturday 17 October 11am-12.30pm
Visit www.devonccg.nhs.uk/teignmouth-and-dawlish for more information, to register as an interested stakeholder and receive regular updates, express an interest in attending an on-line meeting or to invite the CCG to meet remotely with their community group to discuss the proposals.