Two wards at Okehampton Community Hospital lie empty at a time when 'bed blocking' is a serious issue for the NHS and a cause of the unprecedented NHS waiting lists.

Local residents of Okehampton have come together to try and get 'One Devon', the local Integrated Care Board (ICB), to reopen the wards.

Health-care provision is often described in terms of 'demand', 'head count', 'resource' and 'budgets' but the reality is that our experience of health-care is deeply personal. The objective of the Okehampton Hospital Chronicle is to bring home the fact that the NHS does not provide some abstract service but that it is often a personal and life-changing exprience.

Many people have contributed to the Chronicle and we thank them. We have done our best to represent their experience and if we have failed to do this we apologise.

You can download a copy of the Chronicle here.