Pierre Landell-Mills, Chairman of the Dartmouth Patients Participation Group has provided answers to patients’ questions about the opening of a new health facility to replace Dartmouth Hospital and become the centre for health care in Dartmouth.

Called River View, the centre is currently a care home.

Asked whether there would be buses to take elderly patients close enough to River View, Mr Landell-Mills responded: ”Stagecoach has promised to do their best to provide a modified route that takes patients as close as possible to River View, together with a shelter.

“This can’t be done however until much closer to the opening date.”

The delay in completing the lease to the health authority for River View has created some concern amongst patients but Mr Landell-Mills is able to confirm that: “The NHS Foundation Trust is still planning on opening the new facilities at River View before the end of 2017.”

When quizzed about whether the care home at River View was viable and able to provide satisfactory care, his response was: ”The NHS Foundation Trust believes that a care home with up to 40 beds will be viable once the rest of the new facilities are established.”

A further question asking about the adequacy of parking was not answered. The Trust implementation team are apparently “still working on the problem”.