Peter McIlven, chairman of Totnes Constituency Labour Party, and members Helen Beetham and Michael Elsmere, write:

The NHS nationally is in such dire shape that the situation in A&E departments has been termed a ‘humanitarian crisis’ by the Red Cross.

After decades of under­funding, social care is at ­breaking point. Elderly people lie in hospital beds, unable to access the care they need in the community, while dangerously ill patients die on trolleys, unable to access the care they need in hospital.

At the same time, health and social care services are being reshaped radically in our own community. We in the Totnes CLP have joined with many other voices to oppose the ­proposals put forward by South Devon Trust Clinical Commis­sioning Group.

We oppose the closure of community hospitals in Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, Bovey Tracey, Dartmouth and Paignton; of minor injury units in Ashburton, Dartmouth, Brixham and Paignton; and the implied loss of 32 beds in Torbay Hospital. We oppose the ­outsourcing of health and social care services to the private ­sector.

Not only do these proposals put an axe through the heart of our communities, they do not begin to address the funding shortfall of £142m that the trust is facing.

The anger of local people was fully in evidence at a public meeting at the Civic Hall in Totnes on October 11.

Despite running a consultation survey that was blatantly biased, the subsequent Torbay Healthwatch report admits that the CCG proposals have found no consent among local people. Indeed, many well-informed arguments have been raised against them, including in these pages.

We welcome MP Sarah Wollaston’s challenge to the SDT CCG, as laid out in her January newsletter to constituents. We ask her to stand with us and the many local people who oppose these proposals, not just in their detail but also in their general purpose.

This is to remove significant elements of healthcare from the NHS budget and classify them as social care, where it is means-tested at a punitive level so that the long-term sick, elderly and disabled have to pay.

It is to run down healthcare services in favour of private providers, such as Mears and Virgin Care. It is to punish ­communities that have an ­elderly population and cannot raise enough local taxes to pay for their care.

Dr Wollaston has taken a principled stand in her role as chairman of the Health Select Committee, for example when she exposed the lies told by her own Government about the NHS budget. We agree with her that we need a cross-party ­commission on the future of social care, but this will not report in time to alleviate the crisis we face this winter.

We ask Dr Wollaston to oppose any further restructuring until the commission

has made proposals for social care to be funded in a fair and ­sustainable way.

We also ask her vigorously to oppose any restructuring in the STD area and until it is clear the CCG can provide health and social care to the level that is needed by our communities, and with no one left behind.

Our constituency is the ­birthplace of the NHS. The 1945 Labour Party manifesto – written at Dartington Hall – established the principle that healthcare should be available to all equally and free at the point of use.

This towering achievement has been undermined systematically through funding cuts and piecemeal privatisation and is now on the point of collapse.

The Labour Party has called a national day of action on the crisis in the NHS and social care this Saturday.

There will be a stall in Totnes Market Square, with leaflets, petitions, and letters to our MP. Other activities will be taking place around the constituency and demonstrations are planned in those towns most affected by the loss of services.

Please join us and help us to save our NHS.