Dear, dear, what a shambles. River View finished before it even started.

What sort of people close down Dartmouth and King-swear Community Hospital without forming a business plan that has not been thought through to completion before they move the sick, elderly and vulnerable people in the ­community?

The people of Dartmouth and the surrounding area have been totally let down and betrayed.

Total lack of thought, not ­listening to people, ignorance and mindlessness have led to a disaster and nowhere for our community to go should they be in need of care.

Why was the hospital closed before any agreement to move health services to River View was signed?

The people of our town went to a consultation meeting two years ago to oppose the idea of moving to River View. It seems the meetings were a waste of time.

I wrote several letters to the Chronicle at the time to say what would happen. At the meeting, committee members assured us that River View was secure and that there would be a 35-year lease. In my opinion, it was still not safe because after 35 years they could still sell.

They also said that when the hospital closed, staff jobs would be available at River View. How wrong they were.

Dartmouth is now without a deal, without nursing beds and without community acute beds for our sick and needy. It looks as though patients will be transported off to the far ­reaches of the South Hams and even further, making it even more difficult for loved ones and relatives to visit. Worst of all, nursing staff who work so hard are without jobs.

I think we now need answers.

We demand as a community to ask why the hospital has still not been sold.

We demand to know why a deal was not secured before the closure of the hospital.

We demand to know the future of our acute beds and what is going to be done now that the River View deal has fallen through.

It seems that Dartmouth has been left out to dry again, ­without anywhere to go in the area for care in the supposed community.

We need to know why £250,000 rent per year for ­supposedly 35 years was not ploughed into a new purpose-built, state-of-the-art building to house the hospital, the surgery and pharmacy. Renting would mean the building would never belong to the NHS.

Around £8.75m would have been the cost over 35 years.

If that money was spent on a new building, what a statement that would make to our ­community:

l It would create work.

l It would provide jobs.

l It would serve our ­community.

If this was thought about five years ago, it would have now been in place – patients, surgery, pharmacy, well-being centre, all under one roof.

The hospital site and other property could then have been sold off.

The NHS would then

get back its money, without ­needing to pay rent, and any surplus could have been fed back into healthcare.

Unfortunately, we have missed the boat and all of this is a maybe.

I am very disappointed.

D Drury

Ford Valley, Dartmouth