Local prospective MP James Heappey joined over 100 concerned Shepton Mallet residents and health professionals at an extraordinary meeting of the town's council to discuss the recent announcement by the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group over the future of hospital beds in Shepton's community hospital.
"The situation is pretty confusing for local people" said James Heappey. "The CCG are using terms like "held", "reserved" or "mothballed" which mean very little to the general public. They say the beds haven't been closed but neither do they say they're still fully open. What's more, they say the pilot is not yet complete and they need another year before making a decision. I don't see why they've made any announcement on the status of the beds until the trial is complete. All they've done is set a hare running that scares local people."
Mr Heappey continued; "Shepton is the subject of a trial for the whole of Somerset yet rather than "reserving" a bed at each of Somerset's community hospitals, they've reserved four here in Shepton. The people of Shepton want their hospital beds and seem to be at a disadvantage for having this trial happen in the town. People cannot be blamed for thinking that there is more to this and we must campaign vigorously to make sure that Shepton gets a fair deal."