AROUND two hundred people turned out, despite the rain, dressed in red to the Save Our Hospital Service (SOHS) ‘Red Line’ event in Holsworthy on Friday.

The event, organised by the town council and SOHS, hoped to demonstrate the passion Holsworthy has for its community hospital and the feeling towards the temporary closure of the inpatient beds.

The official Red Line event for North Devon was organised for April Fool’s Day but due to the timing of the temporary closure of Holsworthy’s inpatient beds — which took effect on March 31 — the decision was made to hold the town’s event a day early.

People across Devon then joined together on April 1, to get their message ‘you can’t fool us’ across to the STP, CCG and Success Regime — as well as the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (NDHT) who took the decision to temporarily close the inpatient facility at Holsworthy to address safety concerns.

Feelings ran high during the ‘first wave’ of the Red Line protest as people from Holsworthy and the surrounding parishes joined together along what they called the ‘thin red line’ to surround the community hospital and shout out their support to ‘save our beds’.

Banners were supplied bearing the slogan ‘save our hospital beds’ and ‘stop fooling with our health services’ and many waved SOHS red flags.

Mayor Jon Hutchings gave a speech thanking all those present who had come out to ‘show support’ to their local hospital and the services its inpatient beds provide.

He said: “Twenty-eight days ago the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust decided they would temporarily close our community hospital beds here in Holsworthy. I have had nearly 100 letters and emails showing support for the hospital and the great care and compassion shown by its staff.”

The mayor commended the staff for their professionalism throughout this process and thanked those at the event for their support.

He said: “There is one positive thing that can be drawn from the Trust’s decision to close the inpatient beds, and that is that it has brought the community together, not just Holsworthy but also the outlying villages. We have put up a fight! I do not believe that the Trust ever thought there would be such outrage from so many people over a small community hospital in a dark corner of Devon. But that is why we are fighting, because we are all alone out here.”

Cllr Hutchings assured everyone he is ‘confident that this hospital can be re-opened’, adding: “The Trust have said they have never re-opened a hospital after a temporary closure. All along we have said that Holsworthy is so different from other communities in many ways. To prove just how different we are, I am confident that this hospital can be re-opened. Now it’s up to the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust and the CCG to prove to us that temporary really is temporary and get the inpatient beds re-opened here as soon as possible.”

Although unable to attend the event, MP for Torridge and West Devon Geoffrey Cox supplied a comment to be read out during the event to express his support for the town’s cause.

He said: “The Trust acknowledged to me that there has been no immediate risk to patients at the hospital, that there is no real issue with incidents there and that the bed occupancy rates are not far short of what is required to allow nurses to maintain their skills.

“It seems to me, therefore, that the issues that have brought about the temporary closure of the beds can be resolved and if this decision is, as we have been assured, ‘temporary’, I have urged the Trust to make immediate plans to reopen. This battle is not over; indeed, it has not even begun. The reopening of these beds is a test of good faith for our local healthcare authorities.

“If this is a ‘temporary’ closure — then the inpatient facility at Holsworthy Hospital must reopen. It is as simple as that.”

On Friday, the Post spoke to a number of local residents who had joined the Red Line event, dressed in red, to surround Holsworthy Community Hospital.

Ben Longhurst-Prior, who set up the #supportourstaff campaign, said he was ‘extremely upset’ by the temporary closure of the inpatient beds, he added: “I firmly believe this was pre-planned. The figures used to attempt to explain the closure were misleading and flawed, and did not paint the proper picture of how good and necessary our hospital is.

“The Trust need to be transparent in their work and properly explain themselves to the general public in a way they understand instead of trying to mislead people.

“The staff would be back there in a heartbeat, so let’s get them back in there to do what they do best — provide a service to the local community that is second to none.”

Penny Smith, who has terminal cancer and has been a patient at Holsworthy’s community hospital, said: “What a marvellous turnout, despite the weather. We need our hospital beds reopened without any more delay. Let’s keep fighting together until we have won.”

Roger Sawyer, from Ashwater, said he had experience with the hospital and praised them for the support they had given him and his family.

“This shouldn’t be happening at all. It is very personal for me — my late wife was here at Holsworthy Hospital. She had been in Exeter for a while before she was finally able to come here. Before that I needed to complete an 80 mile round trip every single day just in order to see my wife — which is unacceptable! There is a great turn out here today and there has been a good turnout every time this town has held a meeting about our hospital.”

He added: “It is not just Ashwater that relies on the services this hospital provides, but all the other villages and parishes — what will we do without it?”

Geoffrey Cusick, president of the Holsworthy Rotary Club, said he was really concerned about the Trust’s decision. He said: “The people of Holsworthy deserve decent local services. Because our population is so isolated and scattered you have particular needs in this part of Devon, which the Trust in Barnstaple are not recognising.

“However, I don’t think the Trust’s board were prepared for the strength of feeling or the articulacy of our case against why the hospital should be open. They got it wrong in closing it and they need to realise that!

“We all know someone who has been here, that was near death, but to have people travelling up to Barnstaple for care will put both emotional and financial strain on families.

“Now we, and the Trust, need to be making sure that this hospital has a long term and sustainable future!”

Liz Curtis, from Holsworthy, said it was ‘good to see so many people turn out in the cold’ to protest the bed closures at the hospital.

She explained how she believes the alternative solution to community beds ‘Care in the Community’, put forward by the NHS, has its limitations.

“Care in the Community can only work for people who have an able bodied person living with them. Having been a carer many times I know how exhausting it is. When the carer gets sick there will be no back up as there are not enough beds for temporary emergency care in care homes locally.

“Recently I tried to access community care for a family member but was unable to as the doctor was not available to refer my relative to the care team and the patient can not refer themselves. With most of our GPs on a two or three day week how is this going to work?

“We need Holsworthy Hospital as a step down for those patients who are not quite strong enough to return home and most certainly for end of life care. Give us back our beds!”

Thanking the mayor for his involvement and for bringing the community together, the former Portreeve of Holsworthy, Philip Cole, concluded: “The mayor of Holsworthy has, I think, given an open hearted statement tonight for the community, because we will join together and fight together to keep our hospital!”