Residents of Ottery St Mary have gathered at the steps of County Hall this afternoon in a bid to win councillors' support in their fight against the NHS's proposed hospital beds closures.
Brandishing placards bearing slogans including 'Save Ottery Hospital' and 'Save our Beds', a coach load of between 30 and 40 campaigners united to express their concern at the effects the closures may have on some of their community's most vulnerable members.
The North, East and West Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is proposing to close all inpatient beds at Ottery St Mary, Axminster and Crediton hospitals, as well as Ottery's Minor Injuries Unit, which has now closed due to under staffing issues.
The CCG, which is £14m in debt, unveiled its plans on Wednesday, September 17, launching a 12-week consultation which is due to come to an end in December.
The CCG's Transforming Community Services document for Eastern Devon explains that the healthcare vision is for a model where community healthcare is more closely integrated with social care.
It also explains that the aim is to improve care in the community, increasing the number of healthcare professionals and therefore close hospital beds to fund this change.
Devon County Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee is due to discuss the proposals at their meeting today, at 2pm.
A bus, paid for by Otter Nurseries, left Ottery at 1pm so campaigners could make their stance before the meeting.
The general feeling among the protesters was one of concern that care in the community can never replace the care provided in community hospitals.
Retired doctor, Bradshaw Smith, 80, said: "Care in the community is all very well, but what about the person who needs help late in the day on the weekend, or in acute situations? Will the care be available then?
"And what happens after a person is tended to at home?
"For some people, a hospital bed in a community hospital, is what they need."
Joyce Cuerden, 71, added: "Some people when they come out of hospital, need constant nursing, so a community hospital bed is what they need, how will this same level of care be achieved in the community?
"I've experienced the wonderful nursing care at Ottery hospital, which has a calm and caring environment, which is necessary for a lot of people before they go home to recuperate."
Under the CCG's proposals, the aim is to improve care in the community, increasing the number of healthcare professionals and therefore close hospital beds to fund this change.
As previously reported by the Echo, despite telling Devon County Council's Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee that the hospital was "running out of capacity", in a statement the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust backed the CCG's reasoning for the changes, stating that the current model of provision is "simply not sustainable or affordable".
But Ottery St Mary ward member, Councillor Claire Wright, who is also a member of Devon County Council's Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee accused the CCG of pursuing an "ideological" way forward rather than the "right way" forward for patients.
Cllr Wright, who attended the protest before the meeting, has also long called for details of the financial justification for the proposals and said the lack of information is akin to a lack of transparency in the process.
