WESTBURY Town Council is hoping to hold a parish poll to find out what local people think about the future of Westbury Hospital.
The decision to hold the poll was made at the Annual Town Meeting last week, backing a call by hospital campaigners who are fighting plans to build houses on the Westbury hospital site.
Councillors voted in favour of the poll which would ask one simple question – “Do you agree that the sale of Westbury Community Hospital should be stopped so that a consultation can take place before any planning application can be submitted?”
The poll must now be ratified by the full Westbury Town Council before being submitted to Wiltshire County Council for approval.
Costing Westbury Town Council £5,000, the poll is intended to give an accurate representation of what the Westbury population thinks. Campaigners hope it will be held in the summer before NHS Property Services can proceed with their planning.
Members of the campaign group, Stop – Sensible Thinking On Patients – turned up in force at the Annual Town Meeting on Monday 27th April to voice their anger at plans to build houses on the former hospital site.
The STOP group also held a protest on Westbury High Street last month and collected over 800 signatures opposing the hospital plans. Parliamentary candidates Matthew Brown (UKIP), Phil Randle (Green), and George Aylett (Labour) attended the rally.
Letter to the Prime Minister
Founding group member and campaigner Erica Watson recently wrote to health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Prime Minister David Cameron explaining the group’s position.
“The site was donated to the town and the original building was part funded by the community here. We have been informed that none of the proceeds from the sale will come back to the town,” she said.
“Both the Westbury League of Friends and STOP are meeting regularly and plan to engage with the larger Wiltshire community to try to find a way for the site to be retained as a health and/or social care facility for the whole of Wiltshire.
“We already have huge support from the wider community and from the town council and aspire to have a health and social care facility on this valuable community site.
“We are specifically asking you for your intervention and support for the sale of the site to be postponed so that we have time to gather information and to explore the health value of Westbury Community Hospital as a site for a health and social care facility for the county.”
To find out more about the STOP group or to sign the petition online, go to www.whitehorsewestbury.com.
Below is a copy of letter sent to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, by Erica Watson sent on behalf of the STOP group.
“Dear Mr Hunt,
Westbury & District League of Friends and STOP (Sensible Thinking On Patients) www. whitehorsewestbury.com) are writing to you to enlist your support for our aim of retaining the former Westbury Hospital site as a health care facility for Wiltshire.
The hospital was passed to NHS Property Services in 2012 under the Health and Social Care Act, which we were not aware of and so only discovered in early February, when a public meeting was held, that there were plans to sell the site with outline planning permission for housing.
NHS Property services informed us, at that meeting, that the site had been advertised for the statutory 40 days some time last year and that there had been no interest shown. They were not able or willing to share with us whether the site had been advertised in a positive way, which would have encouraged prospective purchasers and sadly did not alert the community that the site was on the market, which would have given us the opportunity to explore prospective purchasers. There were no representatives from the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group or Healthwatch Wiltshire in attendance and so most of the concerns raised about health care issues were left unanswered.
NHS Property Services have apologised for not alerting the town earlier and we have expressed our disappointment that the community were not kept informed about the process of disposing of the site which was purchased by the community in 1932 and which the community via the LOF have donated in excess of 1 million pounds to support health care. The site was donated to the town and the original building was part funded by the community here. We have been informed that none of the proceeds from the sale will come back to the town.
The very well documented campaign to save the hospital in 2005-8 was unsuccessful but the community have continued to raise money to support health related needs and so it is disappointing that the Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Property Services have initiated the sale of the site without having the courtesy of informing the community in a timely manner. I do understand that they probably had no legal obligation to inform the town.
Our local parliamentary candidate, Andrew Murrison and all four other candidates have been very supportive. Andrew has written to the CCG and I understand to you, supporting the identified need for more community hospital beds in this very rural county.
All the recent publications regarding healthcare in Wiltshire (and nationwide) stress the growing elderly population, the need to provide care in a different way, the strain on the acute hospitals and the need make provision for older peoples care in the future.
Wiltshire is a large rural county with a population of 20% aged over 65. Its very rurality makes it unique in the need for easily accessible healthcare. Both our acute hospitals are over an hour’s drive away by car and transport links are variable and expensive. There are only 20 dementia care beds for the county located in Salisbury and whilst we appreciate the financial challenges of the CCG we feel that to place so few beds at the very edge of our large county will make it impossible for many families and carers to visit their loved ones.
The idea of providing care close to home does not seem to feature in this decision.
Both the Westbury League of Friends and STOP are meeting regularly and plan to engage with the larger Wiltshire community to try to find a way for the site to be retained as a health and/or social care facility for the whole of Wiltshire. We already have huge support from the wider community and from the Town Council and aspire to have a Health and Social Care facility on this valuable community site.
We are specifically asking you for your intervention and support for the sale of the site to be postponed so that we have time to gather information and to explore the health value of Westbury Community Hospital as a site for a health and social care facility for the county.
We look forward to hearing from you
Yours sincerely
Erica Watson”
