A series of public consultation meetings into controversial proposals to close the inpatient wards at Bovey Tracey and Ashburton and Buckfastleigh hospitals begins next week.

Torbay and Southern Devon NHS Health Care, which is organising the meetings, proposes relocating the ten beds in Bovey Tracey and the same number in Ashburton and Buckfastleigh to the three-year-old Newton Abbot Hospital.

It maintains that the role of both hospitals is changing to meet future requirements, and the community hospitals while remaining open could concentrate on new outpatient services, yet to be identified.