Your reports on the community meeting held at St Saviour’s Church last Monday week are much appreciated as an ­exposition of complex issues.

The most pertinent question was asked by Simon Drew: “Will holding this meeting

and ‘consultation’ make any ­difference?”

None of the representatives admitted that the answer is no.

The commissioning group representatives gave an account of the problems they face, and Liz Davenport, interim chief executive of the local NHS Foundation 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 – but the job of a ­manager is to identify what needs to be done, what funds are required to achieve those aims, and to obtain the ­necessary funds.

Disinvestment in the hospital before having an established viable alternative was either naive nor incompetent.

We were told: “We only care for people in hospital when that is the best place for them to be.”

Indeed, but which hospital, now that Dartmouth is closed?

Ms Devonport said the ­building did not match current standards and could not be transformed into a health and well-being centre.

Very well, but I call on her to publish the standards to which she referred and let residents decide whether there are other options worthy of consideration or not.

Or has this whole exercise been a fake consultation to

push on with predetermined ­decisions and ignore public opinion?

As Cllr Jonathan Hawkins asked: “How can we have trust in what they say?”

Dr Richard Rawlins,

Beacon Road, Kingswear