The minor injuries unit at Dawlish Community Hospital will reopen soon, according to the NHS trust responsible for it.

Although reluctant to give an exact date, Deputy Medical Director of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust Liz Thomas told Dawlish Town Council at a meeting on Wednesday (1 November) that staff are being recruited and interviews will be held in two week's time.

She said: "I have promised not to give a date, because we do not want to disappoint you here. 

"Interviews are going to be in two weeks' time, people are going to give their three months' notice, they're going to need a little bit of local induction, but not much apparently, according to the people we've got lined up for interview. 

"So I think you've got a rough idea about when we're hoping to reopen the MIU."

The MIU's opening hours would initially be 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday with the "ambition" being to open seven days a week, she added. There would be two practitioners and a booking system.

But councillors were sceptical, as the NHS trust has previously failed to reopen the MIU since it closed in March 2020.

Liz Thomas urged people to "trust the process", and explained how the previous failures were related to staffing issues at the urgent treatment centre at Newton Abbot Community Hospital which have now reportedly been resolved.

She said: "I am not here to sell fairy tales. We're in a very, very different situation to how we were last year.

"Quite frankly, as an organisation it's been embarrassing. But this time, this really feels a substantially different situation."