BOVEY Tracey Hospital has closed to inpatients while £45,000 of work, including essential maintenance, is carried out.

Since the work began three weeks ago patients have gradually been moved to other hospitals, and the two who remained, were transferred to Newton Abbot Hospital on Friday.

A spokesman for NHS Devon said it had been hoped to keep some of the inpatients in the hospital, but the noise and dust, and workmen walking about with hard hats and boots was not condusive to the environment.

The musculoskeletal outpatients clinic remains open.

New bathroom areas are being fitted, a new kitchen is being put in, internal redecoration carried out and roof repairs undertaken.

Bovey Tracey Hospital League of Friends is paying £20,000, which covers the cost of the kitchen.

The spokesman said the trust was very grateful to the League of Friends for its donation. 'It is a tremendous gesture and without this generous donation, the work would not have been possible,' he said.

In January a Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspection had identified essential maintenance within the hospital, due largely to its age.

Building work began a couple of weeks ago and it was hoped it could be completed without transferring the patients, but that proved not the case.

Leah Allen, who is responsible for health and social care in south Devon, said it was dustier and noisier than they would have liked.

'For these reasons we have made alternative arrangements at short notice for the two patients to transfer.

'We have also temporarily redirected new admissions to nearby community hospitals.

'NHS Devon regrets, and would like to apologise for, any inconvenience caused, but the welfare of our patients must come first,' she said.

Inpatient admissions to the hospital will resume on Monday March 28.

Teignbridge Councillor Sally Morgan though is worried that this latest move sounded like the thin end of the wedge for the hospital.

'Bovey Tracey Hospital has been allowed to wither on the vine with the result that there were only two patients currently resident there.

'I realise that the NHS is under increasing pressure financially but the benefits of community hospitals for local residents cannot be measured fiscally,' she said.

*Between April 2010 and March the 12 bed unit Bovey Tracey Hospital saw 163 patients, equating to 88 per cent capacity.