Dr Nick Roberts, chief clinical officer of South Devon & Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group, writes:

May I seek to clarify a ­number of points in recent ­letters to the editor by David Leonard and Dr Paul Arnison-Newgass relating to the community services consultation.

The consultation is real and meaningful. We have held 23 public meetings, attended more than 50 community-organised meetings and distributed ­thousands of documents. Why would we go to this length if we did not want to encourage participation and hear people’s views? Current services cannot remain as they are and we need to change the way we operate to meet the rising demand

for services, while keeping people out of hospital unless absolutely necessary.

As explained at the consultation meetings, no lease has been signed for River View, although given the level of support for a health and well-being centre to be located there, discussions have taken place as to the ­feasibility of taking out a lease.

However, any decision on this will not be made until the outcome of the consultation is known early next year, when the governing body of the South Devon & Torbay CCG decides how services will be provided in the light of ­feedback from local people.

Should a decision be made to close Dartmouth and Kingswear Community Hospital, any monies received from any sale will be used to fund services in the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust area.

Bed blocking is caused by a number of factors and is more of a problem in community ­hospitals than at Torbay Hospital. One of the major ­factors is the lack of ­community-based support, which results in people being admitted unnecessarily and/or remaining in hospital too long. Our proposals seek to deal with this by spending more on these services and reducing the amount of money spent on hospital beds that are not ­needed.

Across the area, arguments are made by different communities as to why theirs should be the base for a clinical hub. However, we do not have the staff or the resources to have clinical hubs in all areas. We need to take a whole-area view, and we believe the proposals for hubs in Brixham, Totnes and Newton Abbot provide reasonable access to the whole population we serve, and can attract the necessary staff to provide a safe, quality service. We are open in the consultation to alternative ideas.

May I join with Dr Paul Arnison-Newgass and encourage people to complete the feedback questionnaire – www.communityconsultation.co.uk – so that we have as many views as possible on the different elements of the proposals?