HOSPITAL chiefs are meeting regularly to assess the pressures on Teignbridge’s community hospitals.

Contingency measures are in place to cope with a potential increase in patients during winter.

It could mean beds being moved from Bovey Tracey and Ashburton and Buckfastleigh hospitals to Newton Abbot if there is a significant rise in admissions.

However, the present situation means the emergency measures need not be implemented.

One patient at Bovey Tracey said he had been told earlier this week that the hospital would be closed tomorrow and that he would have to move.

However, the South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group says there are no ‘forseeable issues’ and there are no plans to close Bovey Tracey hospital beds at the moment.  

Last winter, nine beds at Bovey Tracey Hospital were relocated to Newton Abbot for three weeks to help deal with the influx of patients.

Torbay Hospital had opened 21 more beds and brought in extra staff to cope with the extra patients, many of them older with complex health problems.

Contingency plans have been drawn up to move beds from Bovey Tracey and Ashburton and Buckfastleigh to Newton Abbot if winter pressures mount again.