Richard Foord has written to the new Health Secretary Wes Streeting on his first day in the job to raise concerns about the future of Seaton Hospital.

The newly elected MP won the election on Thursday (July 4), and by Friday he sent a letter to inviting them to visit the Hospital to discuss it's future.

In his letter, he is calling for the government to 'safeguard' and 're-purpose' not for clinical use small rural hospitals instead of selling them off.

"That's why I'm pushing for a new rental tariff that would allow NHS Devon to pay a peppercorn rent, in partnership with local charities and community organisations, for unused NHS buildings.

"This will ensure hospitals like Seaton can remain safe in the hands of the people who use the services and, in many cases, those who helped pay for them."

In his letter to Wes Streeting, he called for the Health Secretary to commission a review into how NHS Property Services charges local NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) for facilities - to ensure the rents are fair and to establish a new rental tariff to allow empty buildings to be repurposed by local communities instead of being sold off.

In October, Mr Foord raised concerns about plans by NHS Devon to turn over a whole wing of the hospital - built for using funds raised by the local community - over to NHS Property Services due to being unable to afford the almost £300,000 a year rental charge.

This would mean that NHS Property Services, a government-owned company whose operations are conducted within the guidelines set out by the Department for Health & Social Care, would then look to either sell off or demolish the wing and leave the hospital diminished.

The wing in question used to provide a number of local community hospital beds, until they were cut in 2017. Mr Foord raised these concerns repeatedly with the previous Conservative Government. He said: "however Ministers failed to act and instead insisted the issue was nothing to do with them."

Richard Foord has been working with the League of Friends charity, that supports the hospital, and the Seaton Hospital Steering Committee, elected at a large public meeting in November, to develop alternative plans that would see the space transformed into a new 'Care Hub'.

Richard Foord MP said: "People are fed up with warm words, they want to see action. That's why on my first day as MP for Honiton & Sidmouth, I have written to the new Health Secretary Wes Streeting to demand action to save all of Seaton Hospital.

"For months I tried to get the Conservatives to act, yet they chose not to. This has left the local community without certainty about the future of their cherished hospital.

"With a new Parliament, and a new Government, I am renewing the fight to protect our rural NHS and community hospitals - even if that means banging down the door of the Health Secretary on his first day.