Anger as ‘sub-standard’ Torbay Hospital’s cash lifeline is put on hold

Conditions at Torbay Hospital are so bad that a member of staff caught tuberculosis from a body in the mortuary.

That, along with a sewage leak that forced a whole department to close, is among the reasons why Torbay Hospital must keep its promised government funding, according to MP Steve Darling.

The Liberal Democrat MP and Torbay councillor has blasted the government’s decision to ‘review’ £350 million of funding pledged for the hospital.

The money, promised by the previous Conservative government, has been put on ice by Labour.

But a furious Mr Darling says the Tory commitments were ‘hollow’ and unfunded, and the people of South Devon deserve better.

Health secretary Wes Streeting is reassessing hospital rebuilds across the country, saying the Conservatives didn’t allocate funding to the programme.

In a letter to MPs in constituencies where the New Hospital Programme (NHP) is being reviewed, he says: “The previous government failed to hold a spending review in their last few years of office, and this created a vacuum which allowed previous health secretaries to allude to £20 billion of investment in the NHP that was not there.

“This government wants to see the NHP completed, but we are not prepared to offer people false hope about how soon they will benefit from the facilities they deserve. We must reset the NHP to put it on a sustainable footing.”

Mr Streeting says the NHP was unfunded beyond March 2025, and combined with other financial problems means the government may have to consider ‘re-phasing’ schemes so that they can be developed when the money becomes available.

Mr Darling has compiled a dossier he says proves ‘time is ticking’ to provide a new hospital for Torbay, which former prime minister Boris Johnson had promised by 2030.

Staff say that without the new hospital they cannot deliver safe care or reduce waiting times, and there is a £60 million maintenance backlog on the site. Torbay is the third-oldest hospital in the country, with Edwardian buildings still in daily use.

More than 80 per cent of the estate is rated either poor or bad, and could be ‘at serious risk of failure’.

Patients and staff have picked up infections as a result of sewage leaks this year, and on one occasion the ear, nose and throat department was completely flooded by a sewage leak that wiped out all outpatient activity for a week.

Ventilation in operating theatres has failed, and ventilation in the special care baby unit does not meet prescribed standards. Insufficient ventilation in the post-mortem examination room of the mortuary resulted in a member of staff contracting TB from a corpse.

The tower block which contains the main in-patient wards has severe defects in the concrete, and £1 million worth of specialist scaffolding has been erected to stop masonry falling to the ground.

The dossier points to ‘multiple significant fire safety issues’ across the site. The main restaurant and ward kitchens are no longer fit for purpose, roofs are leaking and CCTV is below standard.

New facilities which have been completed at the hospital, including new endoscopy, day surgery and eye surgery units, have helped to slash waiting times for those services.

Mr Darling said: “Torbay’s residents deserve the same commitment to safety and modernisation as those in other parts of the country. The delays outlined by the government are simply not good enough.

“Our community should not have to wait for basic improvements to facilities that are already putting patients at risk.”

Mr Darling says he will be meeting Mr Streeting next month. 

“With out-of-date facilities, staff are forced to work in sub-standard conditions, and patients risk receiving care in an environment that is not fit for purpose,” said Mr Darling.

“The previous Conservative government promised that the New Hospital Programme would deliver, but instead, these commitments were hollow without funding. Torbay Hospital is now at risk of being placed on the backburner, and our community cannot wait any longer.”

Caroline Cozens, Director of Capital Development for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our top priority is keeping our patients and staff safe and we’re using the available funds to make sure this happens.

"Our staff work hard manage the immediate issues, but the steps we’ve taken to reduce risks are temporary and we desperately need our new hospital.”

To understand more on the challenges that Torbay Hospital faces, read the Torbay Weekly's report here. To hear about the potential bright future of the hospital, click here.