SUPPORT to keep Teignmouth Hospital open has been unanimously backed by councillors across Teignbridge. 

The ongoing campaign to keep community beds open in the town has reached another milestone with Teignbridge District Council giving its wholehearted support to apply pressure on health chiefs to reconsider the decision to close the Mill Lane hospital, the first NHS hospital built in the country.

Campaigners attended the council meeting, held in Newton Abbot, as part of their years-long battle to keep the hospital operational for the community. 

It is hoped the strong backing of the district council, at its last full council before the local elections, could offer a reprieve.

Outgoing council leader Cllr Alan Connett said: ‘We are supporting this motion to protect and save Teignmouth Hospital.

‘We don’t know what we have lost until it is gone and that is certainly true of the estate in Devon of community hospital which have been unloved and left to decline over years.

‘In Teignmouth, the first NHS hospital, provides a real service to the local community.

‘The community is right and they know and love Teignmouth Hospital.

‘Its League of Friends has been dynamic raising money and wanting to give its money to support Teignmouth and its people who rely on the hospital.

‘I regret this council is late to the campaign and the NHS is not ordinarily a matter for this council, others have the powers to make decisions to keep it open.

‘But it was right to ask us at this 11th hour to do something and while it may only be a series of letters to those I power, if we don’t do it now, I suspect the moment will be lost.’

The Notice of Motion, put forward by Teignmouth members Cllrs David Cox and Nina Jeffries, will now see letters sent asking for the ‘iconic’ building to be brought back into use, potentially as a charity-run rehabilitation centre.

The aim of the motion is to ease the current acute hospital ‘bed-blocking’ crisis and tackle ambulance waiting times by providing rehabilitation beds for patients unable to return home. 

Cllr Nina Jeffries said: ‘It is vitally important to retain services at Teignmouth Hospital.

‘We have seen the impact closing community hospitals can have across the district.’

She said communities needed to be able to access services close to them. 

Cllr David Cox paid tribute to the people of Teignmouth who had ‘not let this go’ and kept the fight going.

He said: ‘There is now a glimmer of hope but we are not out of the woods yet.

‘This is not for reasons of emotion or tradition but Teignmouth Hospital now has a clear medical need and we need to save it.’

Following the unanimous recorded vote in favour, Cllr Cox said: ‘I am delighted that the council has backed this.

‘We have been working together with the League of Friends to be able to bring Teignmouth Hospital back into use which will help to ease the current bed blocking crisis and the ambulance backlogs where there is a current critical shortage of social care to get people out of hospital.’

The decision means Teignbridge Council will write to the chairmen and chief executives of Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust, Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, relevant health bodies, local Members of Parliament and the Secretary of State for health asking for ‘a review of the hospital closure plans, mindful of the pressure on local acute hospitals through delayed discharges’.