TEIGNMOUTH Hospital bosses have met GPs and community health workers to come up with a contingency plan while the hospital's only 21-bed ward is closed. Kingfisher Ward will be closed until next spring while engineers work on a replacement for the 56-year-old lift that has been condemned by experts. Complications mean a run over of five months on the original three-month deadline. But bosses insist it does not point to a permanent closure. They are working on six options to provide beds during the winter. These include putting a small number of rehabilitation beds on the ground floor, a hospital at home service or treatment at nursing homes. Operations director Pat McDonough, a former community nurse in Teignmouth, spoke to Tuesday's town council finance and general purposes meeting. He told councillors that one of his main aims is to 'get as many local services into local hospitals as practicably possible'. And he apologised for the closure, but said it was necessary. 'Out of the past 12 months we have had eight call outs because of the lift. 'We cannot take the chance of someone getting trapped in that lift,' he said. Councillors raised concern about the future of the hospital in the light of new changes to the Primary Care Trust system. A new Devon PCT comes into force next month with a gradual changeover completed next summer. Mr McDonough said: 'The fact that we are spending a quarter of a million pounds on the hospital says a lot.' It is also hoped to get the work signed off and ready to go by the time the new PCT comes into force. No other services are affected at the hospital. Cllr Mary Strudwick said she felt reassured, but there is a fear, she said 'that with a new hospital at Newton Abbot, then a deep clean and ward closure, that the PCT could turn around and say, well you've coped well enough without the ward.' Cllr Chris Whitlock added: 'Alternative arrangements can soon become a permanent arrangement and as a new PCT will be in place by then, I cannot be optimistic,' he said. The council agreed to work closely with the PCT and the League of Friends to find the best strategy for replacement beds. Jean Flynn, president of the League of Friends, said: 'We speak up because we are trustees of this hospital and we are responsible to a large number of people who have supported us and continue to do so.