HEALTH chiefs are said to be rethinking how a new community-based model of care can be rolled out in Dartmouth.

A public meeting with formal consultation over plans to bring health care services under one roof to include a new £3m hospital are expected to be held in the spring.

Meanwhile, the Dartmouth Patient Participation Group is asking for views on what people want to see in terms of health provision in the town.

Dartmouth Town Council is also seeking further information on the future of the town’s existing community hospital on South Embankment after Cllr Francis Hawke warned that health bosses could be up to ‘all sorts of trickery’ over the possibly sell-off of the building.

‘We all know the site of the cottage hospital is worth a fortune,’ he told Monday’s meeting of the town council.

‘It concerns me that the Minor Injuries Unit is still not open after almost 12 months. The next thing they will say is you don’t need it, you’ve got a modern hospital in Totnes and Brixham, but what happens to the one in Dartmouth?

‘People don’t realise how serious this is.’

For over year the Dartmouth patients group has been in discussion with the NHS on proposals to move healthcare in the town from the current three sites - Dartmouth Hospital, Dartmouth Clinic and Dartmouth Medical Practice - to new state-of-the-art facilities on a more accessible site to give more joined up health and social services care.

Patieints group chairman Pierre Landell-Mills said: ‘Many meetings have already been held with key stakeholders to plan this important initiative.

‘A steering group with all interested parties represented was established and the intention is to include the project in the Dartmouth Neighbourhood Plan now under preparation.

‘This is an exciting and complex project that is being lead by our local Clinical Commissioning Group.’

But Mr Landell-Mills said although there was unanimous support for the proposal, in December 2015 they were informed the project had been postponed indefinitely owing to a ‘lack of funding’ in the Torbay South Devon NHS budget.

‘We are now waiting for those responsible to come up with an alternative plan which will incorporate the idea of greater community based care,’ he wrote on the patients’ group website.

‘The local NHS managers tell us that the formal consultation process will not now take place before the late spring, or maybe the summer.’

Meanwhile, Dart Patients is urging the Dartmouth Medical Practice to explore moving to new modern premises at the top of town with good parking.

‘It is generally recognised that the present surgery is now old and not well suited to the expanding needs of modern primary health care,’ said Mr Landell-Mills.

‘It lacks the space to accommodate an expanding staff to meet the growing health needs of its patient community.

‘This could take the form of a new health clinic which would provide more services than are currently available locally and would be supported by the Torbay and South Devon Clinical Commissioning Group.

‘There is considerable concern among Dartmouth area patients that budget pressures will eventually force the closure of both our cottage hospital and the local Minor Injuries Unit.

‘While this may be inevitable, we would expect that the proposals to locate more health services within the community to be implemented to reduce the amount of time and expense incurred by patients in travelling to either Torbay or Dereford hospitals or to the nearest MIU or cottage hospital.’

Minutes from the Dartmouth PPG meeting in January showed that although the sale of the both the hospital and clinic could raise £2.2m there was no guarantee the CCG would pass all this amount back to Dartmouth.

Cllr Hawke urged the town council to invite Mr Landell-Mills to a future meeting to give an update on the latest situation.

It was agreed the matter be referred to the council’s general purposes committee.

Plans to try to list part of the Dartmouth cottage hospital are also being explored in conjunction with the Dartmouth and Kingswear Society.

Patients in Dartmouth and the surrounding villages can contact the PPG

with their views at [email protected] or add a comment on its blog.