A doctor has claimed a health trust has bungled by leaving Newton Abbot Hospital half empty.

Ashburton GP Dr Peter Edwards told a packed public meeting at Ashburton Town Hall on Tuesday that he felt Torbay Health Trust should not have allowed the £25 million building to be underused.

The doctor, president of Ashburton and Buckfastleigh League of Friends, told a public LoF meeting: 'I feel there has been financial mismanagement to allow a brand new hospital to lie half-empty.'

The hospital was opened in January 2009