Chancellor Rachel Reeves has thrown the future of Derriford Hospital's new Urgent and Emergency Care Facility into doubt with the announcement of the New Hospital Programme Review

In response, South West Devon MP Rebecca Smith has launched a petition which she intends to present before Parliament if necessary to safeguard the new Urgent and Emergency Care Facility.

The investment is critical to secure better health outcomes in the South West, doubling the space to care for patients.

Rebecca Smith stated:

“I welcome the fact that the Government is still considering this essential scheme.

“The capacity challenges at Derriford Hospital are in plain sight.

“Its health workers operate in an extremely challenging environment.

“Every day my inbox is filled with emails from constituents who are left waiting for treatment at Derriford Hospital.”

Last month she attended the opening of the South West Liver Unit, a cutting-edge 23-bed unit which will play a vital role in early testing and diagnosis.

The opening of the Royal Eye Infirmary in October 2023 brings together the outpatient and surgical eye treatments and the new Bantham Ward and Chesnut Unit will drive down wait times for orthopaedic and urology.

Rebecca continued: “Removing Derriford from the New Hospitals Programme, a scale of investment not delivered since 1981, will be a blow to the gut for every health worker and patient in the South West which relies on it.”

The petition is at: https://tinyurl.com/yc62w6vn

You can also write to Rebecca Smith with their support using the address House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

Meanwhile South Devon MP Caroline Voaden has called for the government not to cancel planned upgrades to Torbay Hospital after the Health Secretary said the project is under review and may not be completed.

The project would see major upgrades and modernisation of Torbay Hospital, including a new ward block and a new planned care centre, and refurbishment that would benefit both patients and staff.

Now the project is under threat of losing funding, according to a letter sent to MPs which listed projects now under review by the Health Secretary.

Voaden has called on the Health Secretary to ensure that the funding is made available for the new hospital project to go ahead and to use changes to the fiscal rules at the Budget referred to by the Chancellor in a recent speech to ensure the funding is made available.

She also called on the Health Secretary to meet with her so she could explain why patients in South Devon could not afford to lose funding for this project

Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden, said:

“The Conservatives ran our NHS into the ground, leaving patients and staff at risk in crumbling hospitals.

“That cannot be the same under this new government. Torbay are leaders in the integration of health and social care - a model we would like to see replicated across the country. It would be a catastrophe if these new and better ways of delivering healthcare were put at risk by cancelling this investment.”