HOLSWORTHY Hospital is a ‘strong contender’ for inpatient beds according to North Devon Healthcare Trust, which held a series of meetings in the town last week.

Hundreds of people packed Holsworthy Memorial Hall to show their support of inpatient beds at community hospitals on Thursday. Holsworthy Hospital is at risk of losing all of its beds under the trust’s plans to save £5-million from its community services budget — around half of its £11-million shortfall.

The trust held three sessions in the town as part of a six-week public consultation to establish where 40 inpatient beds should be located in northern Devon. There was standing room only at the first public meeting, with people spilling out of the Memorial Hall.

Residents from across the area, including GPs, nurses, members of Holsworthy Patient Participation Group, Holsworthy Medical Centre, district and town councillors, members of clergy, and former/current patients were among those present, many airing their concerns over the trust’s options.

The trust has three options where community hospital beds could be located — beds at two community hospitals, either Holsworthy, South Molton, Bideford or Ilfracombe, all beds at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH), or some beds at NDDH and one community hospital. It plans to ‘provide much better care for people in their own homes’ under its vision to ‘move towards an independence not illness service’.

Nellie Guttmann from North Devon Healthcare Trust said it was ‘incredible’ to see so many people at the meeting. Details of the options and combinations within them were given, before a question and answer session with the trust’s director of operations, Rob Sainsbury.

He said Holsworthy Hospital was a ‘very strong contender’ to have inpatient beds because of its distance from an acute hospital, its ‘good’ recruitment record and low-level use of agency nurses.

Mr Sainsbury said: “There is no option to say that every single bed will go to Holsworthy, but where else would they be useful, we have to think about North Devon as a whole. At Ilfracombe the other day, someone said Holsworthy was a long way from anywhere so it made sense to have beds at Holsworthy and Barnstaple.

“We must remember that healthcare is not just about what happens in the hospitals, it’s what happens out of it as well and we have to consider that.

“There will always be some need for beds and we know this is a very isolated community, we know you are the furthest away from an acute hospital and we know that relatives want to be near you. We are consulting with you because we want to hear your views.”

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week’s edition of the Post.