A group representing patients has backed the health trust and clinical commissioning group’s decision not to reopen to Dartmouth and Kingswear Hospital.

Pierre Landell-Mills, chairman of the Dartmouth Patients Participation Group, told the Chronicle: "It would indeed be good if the South Devon and Torbay NHS Foundation Hospital Trust were able to buy the River View building for all the health needs.... That would be a great solution.

"Unfortunately, I was told by the trust that when I and U (owners of River View) were offered £3m by the trust for the outright purchase of the building (independently valued at £2.8 million), their offer was refused. The owners wanted £8m!"

He added: "I understand that the trust, by statute, is not empowered to offer a price above the valuation it gets from its estate valuer. The owners of River View said in January that instead of doing a deal with the trust, they planned to run an 80-bed care home.

"This ambition is most unlikely to be achieved as there is not a demand for an 80-bed care home in Dartmouth as we have seen over the past four years.

"In implicit recognition of this fact, they have apparently now decided to go out to tender for a 35-bed care home; it is not clear whether this means leaving the remainder of the building unused. It is very unlikely that they can now secure a deal of any kind that would give them as good a return than that offered them by the NHS trust. But maybe there are things behind all this which we do not know…

"The plan to provide training for care workers has been developed by the Trust, not Sarah Wollaston, although she has been very supportive.

"Right now I believe best strategy is to press full speed ahead with Plan B (i.e. with the plan to build the health centre on a new greenfield site) so that the owners are left in no doubt that the trust has a Plan B and will implement, it unless the River View owners come back with an acceptable offer and indeed has already started to implement Plan B.

"What is plainly distracting, and counterproductive, is to argue for NHS money to be wasted on a temporary arrangement for the health and well-being centre to be located in the Dartmouth hospital building."

Efforts are being made to contact U and I for a comment.