Pierre Landell-Mills, chairman, Dartmouth Patients Group, writes:

I was surprised by the Chronicle’s front-page article, December 30, suggesting that

a whole new exercise was ­envisaged regarding options to keep Dartmouth Hospital open and reopen the minor injuries unit. I fear the dramatic headline risks seriously misleading the Dartmouth community. The local NHS is coming to the end of a long consultation, not ­starting a new one.

The Healthwatch report due out on January 6 will ­summarise the results of the public consultation that has taken place over the past few months; it is not a new initiative and will do little to change the options that have been debated so extensively within the ­community. It will simply ­summarise the views expressed.

Moreover, the idea that the community can somehow mobilise its own resources to keep the hospital open is surely a non-starter, and in any event is not the best use of available resources. It will make far more sense to use the limited resources to optimise health ­services in our area – that is what we have been discussing for weeks. That is what the proposed new model of care seeks to achieve. To the extent that the local community is willing to contribute funds, these are best donated to Dartmouth Caring, which is doing sterling work to help ensure patients receive the best possible support.

The recent Cottage Hospital Independently Promoted Survey conducted in Dartmouth revealed that local ­residents now recognise that improved healthcare in our area can best be achieved by creating the proposed new Health and Well-being Centre at River View, rather than fighting to keep open the hospital, which is no longer fit for purpose.

In the public consultations run by the Clinical Com­missioning Group, it was ­confirmed that the new Health and Well-being Centre will be located jointly with a well-run care home, where there should be sufficient intermediate care beds under full NHS supervision to meet the needs of Dartmouth residents.

In addition, the NHS is ­committed to providing greatly enhanced support for patients to be treated at home, with ­services based at the Health and Well-being centre. And NHS England has provided a ­significant grant to assist the Dartmouth Medical Practice to relocate its surgery to the centre and provide basic minor injuries care. The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust will locate clinical ­services there too.

With goodwill and determination, the new centre could be up and running before the end of 2017, and possibly even ­earlier.

That is something to look ­forward to – a modern health facility for Dartmouth that would accommodate the GP practice and all the other local health services in one place. It should mean greatly improved local healthcare. Let’s go for it and not get bogged down in further interminable and ­wasteful debate on what to do.