“Reduce community hospital beds from 143 to 72 in the Eastern locality." So said the 2016 report that sought to reinvest just £1.2 million into “place based care”, after removing £6 million, along with the beds from our community hospitals.

Last week, I met with Dr Sarah Wollaston – the Chair of NHS Devon’s Integrated Care Board – at Seaton Community Hospital. We had a productive discussion, centred around what could be done to help save the wing which is currently under threat – the very wing that the local community funded in the first place.

The meeting was also attended by our local Steering Committee and NHS Property Services. The tone of the conversation had moved on from the initial meetings I had with NHS Property Services. There is now a genuine desire to see the space repurposed, rather than simply being sold off and even demolished. I would chalk this up to the huge public pressure that’s been expressed. I am grateful to over 9,000 people who have backed petitions to oppose these plans, which I have presented to Parliament.

This means the key barrier to progress in this endeavour is no longer Devon’s ICB or even NHS Property Services, but the Conservative Government in Westminster – specifically the Department for Health & Social Care.

NHS Property Services is a Government-owned company with a single shareholder, the Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins. She is ultimately responsible for setting the guidelines within which NHS Property Services operates.

Because of these current guidelines, NHS Property Services tell me that they can only rent the community-funded wing at Seaton Hospital at the going market rate for clinical facilities, which they claim is £140 per square metre. This is a huge sum that puts it far out of reach of any local community group or charity.

The only way this can change is from the top. With a single stroke of her pen, the Health Secretary could change this policy and allow the space to be rented at a reduced sum, so it can provide new health and care services to support people across the Axe Valley.

Yet every time I have raised this in Parliament, Ministers claim they cannot get involved. This is farcical: the system is utterly broken and needs fixing, or Ministers are content to do nothing and are passing the buck. Or both.

On Friday 23rd February I have secured a debate in the House of Commons on the Accountability of NHS Property Services, where I will be calling for the Government to drop the façade and finally act to keep our cherished hospital intact.