Slow Progress at Crediton Hospital

11.18.07am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 20th Oct 2008

The Crediton Hospital Campaign Group met with senior managers of the Primary Care Trust, the Devon Partnership Trust and the County Council on 14 October. This was the first meeting of the Group since they reached an understanding with the authorities about their role.

The authorities had provided a schedule of services available at the hospital, details of their availability and the personnel involved. This was discussed at some length and officers undertook to research many queries raised and report back to the Group's next meeting.

Cllr Nation said "It is clear that services at the hospital are gradually increasing, although we took the authorities to task for claiming that activities are going on before they actually start. There is general agreement that the Crediton area has been badly served by the authorities in recent years and we need to ensure that local services are brought up to a level which compares favourably with other areas. We shall monitor the provision of new services very carefully to ensure that provision at Crediton Hospital improves as quickly as possible.

A major concern throughout has been the lack of residential respite for the elderly with serious mental health problems and, once again, the authorities failed to provide reassurance about this. We stressed that we cannot wait years to see a replacement of the excellent respite services which were available at Crediton Hospital until Boniface ward was closed over a year ago."

The Group complained at the continued mothballing of four beds at the hospital and the inability of the authorities to agree to the provision of two beds ring-fenced for local GP direct referrals and a further two beds they had been told months ago would be provided for older people with mental health and medical needs. The officers agreed to enquire into these and other matters and report back.

Many references were made to the purchaser/provider split in the health service and Cllr Nation asked that talks be opened up with officers commissioning the services, since many of the deficiencies seem to result from decisions they make. It was agreed that the Group seek attendance of these commissioners at future meetings.