RETIRING Devizes GP Brian Jones says residents ought to accept that a future health facility will not have inpatient beds.

Dr Jones, who was a partner at Lansdowne Surgery in Devizes, said: "The PCT can't provide all the facilities in all areas.

"In Devizes there's more of an argument that there should be outpatient clinics, X-ray, physiotherapy and ultrasound rather than beds.

"In an ideal world one would have both but resources are scarce."

He welcomed the idea of a proposed Primary Care Centre where all three town surgeries relocate to one site but work separately.

He said his practice had agreed to move to such a centre under previous chief executive Barbara Smith.