NHS bosses have been given a 14-day deadline to come up with a solution to what residents claim is a health crisis.

They gave an assurance they would respond to the request, during a sometimes heated public meeting to discuss the closure of Dartmouth and Kingswear Hospital and the failure of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to secure a lease on River View for a new health and well-being centre.

Liz Davenport, interim chief executive of the trust, said that with the limited amount of resources available, it was doing what it thought was best to ensure community care in the town.

When challenged about the closure of the hospital, Simon Tapley, from the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said that when the decision to close it was made all other options were viable at that point and the falling through of the River View proposal was out of their hands.

However, many residents said it was “unacceptable” and questioned why the hospital building couldn’t be refurbished, as either a temporary hospital or as a new health and well-being centre.

Ms Devonport responded by saying the building did not match current standards and could not be transformed into a health and wellbeing centre. She stressed many residents in the area were now being cared for at home with a new form of community care which reduced the need for community hospital beds and, if beds were required, there were some available in Totnes and Newton Abbot.

Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for the area, said not everyone wanted care at home and asked whether the trust could give the community a commitment that there will be beds in place soon.

Dartmouth resident Linda Goss said the hospital was part of the town’s heritage and without it the town had become “vulnerable”. She claimed the hospital’s closure had led to “unnecessary deaths”. She added: “We do not support you.”

Ms Davenport said a new health and wellbeing centre couldn’t be created straight away and said it might be completed by 2021.

At the end of the meeting, county and district Cllr Jonathan Hawkins made a statement on behalf of the town claiming the trust had “lied” and asked it to respond with new proposals within 14 days. If not, Cllr Hawkins, said he would ask for a government inspector to look into the problem.

See Friday’s paper for more.