A PETITION to stop the sale of Moretonhampstead Community Hospital has been signed by almost 1,500 people.

The hospital was closed last summer by the NHS due to ‘safety and infrastructure issues’ which included a leaking roof.

Now the petition on 38 Degrees is calling on NHS Property Services, Devon Integrated Care Board, and MP, Mel Stride to pause the proposed sale of the building and work with local residents, community organisations, and the GP practice to retain the site within the NHS estate.

Alternatively, the petition is asking the building be transferred into community ownership for ‘locally delivered health and wellbeing services’.

The building, which pre-dates the NHS, is considered ‘old and outdated’ and has suffered further deterioration, including damp, such that it is an ‘unsafe environment for staff and patient care’.

It is understood the high cost of replacing the roof is not considered cost-effective.

The petition is calling for ‘an immediate pause on any sale or disposal process by NHS Property Services’.

It also wants: ‘An agreement in principle that, should disposal proceed, the site be transferred at a nominal cost of £1 to the people of Moretonhampstead, acknowledging its historic purpose, community value, and original donation to the town.’

The hope is, with ‘sustained support from the ICB’, the site could be developed into a health and community hub for district nurses, a care agency, GP overflow and local wellbeing services.

Built in 1900 for the people of Moretonhampstead, the hospital no longer had inpatient beds but had been used as a base for the community nursing team and a leg ulcer clinic.

NHS Devon says it has been working with a group of community representatives, chaired by the Moretonhampstead Parish Council as part of the ongoing involvement and engagement.

The community nurses were due to move into new office space in the town centre.

But the petition says: ‘Although it no longer has inpatient beds, it remains an important community asset, well suited to hosting local healthcare, district nursing, a care agency, and wider community initiatives.

‘It has been extensively and continuously used since its inception.’

There are claims the building could be sold either on the open market or to a charitable community bid.

The closure follows more than a decade of effort by the local GP practice and other groups to secure a future for the site.

But while the GP practice supports a community-led plan, it cannot afford to purchase the hospital and cannot relocate.

The parish council has also supported attempts to keep the building in public use.

The petition states: ‘Local residents, the GP practice, and community groups could take responsibility for the hospital if given the necessary time, access, and support.

‘This would protect the building for NHS and community purposes and prevent its loss to private development.

‘Watching the building drift toward a quiet sale is regrettably unsurprising.

‘Rural primary care and rural communities have long been treated as peripheral—too small to prioritise, too remote to understand, too insignificant to influence larger strategies.

‘The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS barely acknowledges rural general practice.

'The population demographic is heavily skewed to the more elderly with increasingly complex health needs, with spasmodic and limited public transport accessing care is a problem.’