MPs Kevin Foster and Anthony Mangnall welcome £17.7m debt write-off at Torbay NHS Trust
Torbay Hospital - Credit: Archant
MPs Kevin Foster and Anthony Mangnall have welcomed news that Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Torbay Hospital - will benefit from a £17,731,000 debt write-off as part of the government's announcement to scrap £13.4 billion of NHS debt across England.
Kevin Foster, MP for Torbay - Credit: Archant
The debt write-off announcement also comes alongside a new NHS funding model to make sure the NHS has the funding and support to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The changes will provide much-needed financial support during this unprecedented viral pandemic, as well as laying secure foundations for the longer-term commitments set out last year to support the NHS to become more financially sustainable.
This is part of a package of major reforms to the NHS financial system, designed in a collaboration between the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, which will begin from the start of the new financial year.
Trusts across the South West will see a total of £825,562,000 of debt written off thanks to this move.
Anthony Mangnall, MP for Brixham and Totnes - Credit: Archant
This package is launched in combination with a simpler internal payment system to help NHS trusts in dealing with the coronavirus response.
This significant change will mean hospitals will get all the necessary funding to carry out their emergency response, despite many hospitals cancelling or limiting their usual services such as elective surgery or walk-in clinics due to the virus.
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Kevin Foster, MP for Torbay, said: 'This news is welcome and will be a boost to Torbay's NHS as its teams work hard to keep people safe and defeat the deadly threat coronavirus poses to our community.
'The government is committed to doing whatever it takes to tackle coronavirus and this announcement will give our NHS locally the financial certainty it needs not just today, but in the long term as well.'
Anthony Mangnall, MP for Totnes, said: 'It is welcome news to see this vast sum of debt taken off Torbay Hospital's accounts.'
'Now Torbay Hospital has had £17m of debt written off it can plan its services and invest in those vital services that we need in both rural and urban settings.'
