A working group has been formed to create a proposal for what health care people want in the town.

At a meeting held on Wednesday, residents from Dartmouth and the surrounding villages met to discuss the next stage in their plea for better health care in the town after the public meeting held last week.

Those at this week’s meeting in the Guildhall included county and district councillor Jonathan Hawkins; the mayor of Dartmouth, Rob Lyon; and former mayor Richard Rendle.

They decided to form a working group of volunteers who would meet within the next few days to develop a proposal for what health care people in the town want.

This will then be presented to residents to see if the proposal has their support and could then be presented to the South Devon and Torbay NHS Foundation Trust as a viable option.

Cllr Hawkins echoed his calls made at the public meeting held last week in St Saviours Church.

He said: “I think we will be able to achieve a health and wellbeing centre and in the short term we need to pressurise the Trust to put that into the old hospital building.”

This should include “the six nursing beds” which he believes is most important and the health and well-being centre in the hospital building.

“I don’t believe we will ever get the hospital reopened, I really don’t and I’m really sorry about that because I think a small town like ours should have a hospital.”

“We may achieve that in the future when we have a change of government or the government will hopefully put more tax income into the NHS”.

Michael Mills who said he would help the cause with his previous business experience said: “We need to stick to our objective…the first thing we should be doing is to get legitimacy.”

He suggested a group should be formed with an elected chairman and then a public meeting should be called to secure legitimacy and credibility from the public so the group could go to NHS bosses and say that they represent the people of Dartmouth.

‘If we stand up and come up with a business case then we have an opportunity, providing we have legitimacy and credibility, to have the chance of influencing and achieving what we want to achieve.”

A former mayor, Richard Rendle said he felt the current system was “flawed”. “The funding of the new health services are being paid for by the money saved from closing Dartmouth hospital and loosing the nurses. They are running the new system which is failing and is being paid for by the money that they saved by closing Dartmouth hospital."

Rob Lyon, the mayor of Dartmouth said that due to the geography of Dartmouth and the bad weather we’ve recently experienced, “three things are fundamental”.

Firstly, he said “we must have a hospital here of some sought” with six to eight beds run by the National Health. Also, there must be a minor injuries unit in the town.

Thirdly, Dartmouth Caring, the doctors, the clinic and other facilities should be “under one roof” which Linda Goss challenged. She said Dartmouth Caring should not have anything to do with this and should fund their own accommodation.

“I think we should be looking at River View to provide all those things” explained the mayor. He said he thought the current hospital building was “not in the right place” and it needed to be bigger to encompass all the different aspects.

When questioned on his stance, the mayor did say he “would love to support Dartmouth hospital as the centre of health in the town” but felt that the people in power object to this.

It was agreed that the group formed would advertise meetings and invite people to listen.

Edmund Cranmer said we must ensure we keep MP Sarah Wollaston on our side and we know she is sympathetic to our cause.

MP Sarah Wollaston has seconded these pleas and has asked the Trust to keep their promises to provide community beds for local people.

However, “there are no powers to force the Trust to reopen the hospital” explained Dr Wollaston.

“We need to see real progress on how the new facility will be designed and built to meet local needs and in the spirit of agreement for River View.”

“In the meantime, the Trust should work with Dartmouth Caring to provide additional support so that more people can receive the care they need at home.”

The MP has arranged a meeting with the Trust at Torbay hospital on Wednesday, May 30, alongside a “group of local representatives” to follow up the issues raised by residents last week.

There is also an open meeting on Friday, June 22, in Townstal for the MP to talk to residents.