A decision by Labour Ministers which will see a £350m project to rebuild Torbay Hospital delayed for up to a decade, has prompted an angry reaction from local health campaigners, including the former MP for Torbay who campaigned alongside local health teams to secure the investment.
The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, made a statement to MPs today (Monday 20th January 2025) during which he confirmed Torbay would be one of the projects moved into what he termed as “Wave 2”, meaning construction may not even start until 2035! Effectively kicking the project into the next Parliament and potentially seeing Torbay’s new Hospital buildings not completed until the end of the 2030s. Torbay is the third-oldest hospital in the country, with buildings built in the 1920s still in daily use.
Recent years have seen significant capital investment into Torbay’s NHS, including the new Acute Medical Unit, Endoscopy Suite, and the new Day Surgery Unit all completed between 2015 and 2024. Yet the Building a Brighter Future project for Torbay Hospital would have been the biggest single investment in South Devon’s healthcare services since the NHS was founded in 1948. It was committed to under the previous Conservative Government, with plans to deliver it at an advanced stage and construction on enabling works ready to start last year in order to deliver the new buildings by 2030.
When the Labour Government announced in September they had placed Torbay Hospital’s rebuild on a list of projects “under review”, residents rushed to sign an online petition organised by Kevin Foster, calling on the Health Secretary to honour the pledges made. An announcement last week of funding to rebuild Torbay Hospital’s Emergency Department was welcomed locally, but local campaigners are making clear it is no substitute for the urgent and much needed rebuild.
Kevin Foster said: “News Torbay Hospital's rebuild might not even start until 2035 is a shock and a blow to our bay. It is hard to see how the urgent need to replace buildings dating back to the 1920s at Torbay Hospital, the 3rd oldest in the NHS still in daily use, did not see it placed higher in Labour's priority list."
“Before the election Labour and the Lib Dems dismissed any suggestions plans for our hospital rebuild would be threatened by a change of Government. Today Ministers have kicked the plan into not just the next parliament, but the one after that!
"It's a reminder Labour won't and the Lib Dems can't deliver for our bay."
