NHS chiefs have said obtaining value for money for the £2.4 million spent each year on paying for the privately-financed Newton Abbot Hospital is a factor in ending inpatient care at Bovey Tracey and Ashburton, writes Nigel Canham.

One civic leader said the two community hospitals were being treated as 'sacrificial cows'.

On Wednesday, the board of Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care Trust agreed to a 13-week consultation on plans to transfer all inpatient facilities to Newton Abbot where almost half the beds have remained empty since its opening in 2009.

Both Ashburton and Buckfastleigh Hospital and Bovey Tracey Hospital could have futures as outpatient treatment centres.