COMMUNITY beds for people at the end of life and those with intensive rehabilitation needs were officially opened on Friday, May 31, at Deer Park Nursing Home in Holsworthy.

The NHS has been working with the Holsworthy Community Involvement Group (HCIG) to ensure the area has the right health and care services following the temporary closure of Holsworthy Community Hospital’s inpatient beds in March 2017.

After a request by the HCIG, the NHS undertook a procurement exercise and partnered with Holsworthy Health Care to provide beds at Deer Park Care Home for people at the end of life and those with intensive rehabilitation needs. 

Those beds have now been officially opened and are already in use. Overseeing proceedings were MP for Torridge and West Devon Geoffrey Cox and Torridge District Councillor for the Holsworthy Ward Jon Hutchings.

Cllr Hutchings, who has been heavily involved with HCIG since its inception, said: “We want to try and reiterate this is not an alternative to the inpatient beds at Holsworthy Hospital. These are available thanks to the hard work and progress of the HCIG team. The implementation plan to return the inpatient beds to the hospital is still ongoing so I urge people to stay positive.”

He added: “We haven’t had NHS beds in Holsworthy for some time so this is really significant for local people.

“It’s a practical, short-term solution that means people can spend their final days or receive intensive rehabilitation near their loved ones.”

The three beds have been set aside exclusively for NHS use and this new model will be tested over a six-month period.

• See next week’s Post for more information and images from the opening ceremony.