MEMBERS of Crediton Hospital League of Friends were able to assure people that Crediton Hospital was still here and flourishing with more facilities even though its in-patient wards closed two years ago.

The Friends, set up in 1989, shortly after the Hospital opened, has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to buy many items for use by patients and staff, including beds, chairs, carpeting, services, and more latterly, walkie-talkies for staff if there should be an emergency and wheelchairs for people unable to walk to appointments in the Hospital.

A donation has been given to Healthy Babies UK which, although based in Tiverton, works a lot in the Crediton area. It offers breast feeding support, works to help build a close bond between mothers and their babies as well as helping provide breast milk when it is urgently needed, often transported by the volunteer bikers, Devon Freewheelers.

The League has supported Crediton Children’s Centre and another group for older people, all of which work with people from the area covered by Crediton Hospital.

A special exercise bicycle had been bought. This can be raised or lowered as needed.

Also bought over the past year had been a couch, or plinth, for use by physiotherapists and other staff. This is much easier to manoeuvre than the heavyweight one that had been used for such a long time and it was ready for replacement.

There were several queries around the NHS and funding. Among some of the misconceptions people were asking about was the cost to the NHS of treating immigrants and foreign nationals.

In fact, only two per cent of patients are non-UK residents. If someone from a foreign, non-EU country has health care in this country, our Government charges the government of the country from which they come.

Places such as Kenya, Canada and America pay, but Europe does not pay because we have an agreement with Europe that Europeans receive health care in this country free, and so do we because if you are in hospital in, say, Spain, you do not pay for the treatment because of this agreement.

Another item of interest was a report by the BBC earlier this year that more expat UK pensioners relied on European health care under this system than UK-based European pensioners relied on the NHS.

The report said that Britain paid £674.4 million to other European Economic Area (EEA) countries to cover expat British citizens’ health costs in the 2014/15 financial year while it claimed back £49.7 million to pay for EEA citizens’ treatment in the UK.

Something else that not everyone realised was that although Crediton Hospital now belonged to NHS PropCo, this was a private company with nothing to do with the NHS except take over its property.

NHS Property Services Limited says it manages, maintains and improves NHS properties and facilities within its portfolio, working in partnership with NHS organisations.

Many children’s services in the Crediton area are now provided by Virgin Care which already provided services in a number of places around Devon.

There were some questions about whether there would be a minor injury unit at Crediton Hospital, but this could, usually, be provided by the local GP surgery. If not, the advice was to check with your surgery why not.

The area covered by Crediton Hospital and therefore the League of Friends of Crediton Hospital and its Community Patients, to give it the full, proper, title, includes villages such as Bow, Morchard Bishop, Lapford, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Newton St Cyres, Thorverton and Silverton with a total population of more than 21,000.

Sue Read