Torbay Hospital project ‘kicked into long grass’

Torbay Hospital is facing a ‘Pandora’s box of pain and challenges’ according to the bay’s MP.

Speaking during a House of Commons debate on the state of the country’s NHS hospitals, Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling said: “I thought I knew the hospital quite well until I was elected.”
He said he was disappointed that the new Labour government had decided to delay a vital £350 million rebuild. Work on the Torbay Hospital project won’t start until 2032 at the earliest, despite the ageing building suffering sewage leaks and ventilation failures, among a catalogue of other problems.
“Torbay feels as if it has been kicked into the long grass,” said Mr Darling. “We are expecting outstanding staff to deliver services in poor conditions, and Torbay is one of the most deprived communities in the south-west, so we are letting down some of the poorest in our communities.”

He went on to describe conditions at Torbay Hospital.
He said: “On visiting the hospital, there is a vista of hope, as there is scaffolding around the main tower, but it is actually there to stop pieces of the tower falling on NHS workers and visitors to the hospital, rather than because repairs are under way.
“There are almost 700 sewage leaks across the hospital, many impacting on clinical areas. Whole wards have been shut down and had deep cleans due to these sewage leaks within Torbay Hospital.
“Only six per cent of the hospital is of A1 standard. That shows starkly how poor the situation is.”
Mr Darling was speaking as the house discussed the state of repair of NHS hospitals across the country, which one MP described as ‘a national scandal’.
South Devon Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden also said that people in the rural areas of the county would be put at risk by a move to close of out-of-hours coronary care in Torbay and merge it with services in Exeter.
She said it could mean a potential increase of up to 45 minutes in journeys to hospital.
“It is clearly going to put people in critical danger,” she said. “We desperately need the integrated care board to reconsider this poorly thought-out decision.”