Hospital gets £8m to resolve fire risks

A hospital has been given £8m in government funding to tackle fire safety risks after inspections said work was required on escape routes.

The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust was ordered make levels four to eight of Torbay Hospital's tower block safer after Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) inspected it in July.

The fire service raised concerns over whether people could escape and issued an enforcement notice giving the trust until 8 November to take action.

The trust said it was developing plans to "improve fire compartmentation", the fire service had extended the deadline to temporarily relocate patients until 18 December, and no services were expected to close.

Temporary service changes were being introduced to reduce the number of people being cared for in the block at any one time, the trust said.

It added the move would "support the trust to maintain as much inpatient capacity as safely possible".

No services are expected to close and all will remain within Torbay and South Devon.

The trust said planned changes included:

• Services provided from Simpson Ward in the Hetherington Unit at Torbay Hospital moving temporarily to Harbourne Ward at Totnes Community Hospital
• Respiratory inpatient services provided from Midgley Ward in the Tower Block moving temporarily to Simpson Ward
• Services provided from Hutchings Day Unit on level eight moving temporarily to the Horizon Centre on the Torbay Hospital site

"Behind every part of this plan are individual patients and the care they need," said trust chief nurse Nicola McMinn.

"Our teams have looked carefully at which patients can be safely cared for in each setting, the facilities available and the clinical, nursing and therapy support they will need."

The trust gave no specifics, other than to say a "programme of fire compartmentalisation work" was being finalised and funded by the £8m from the government in addition to £1.8m announced in September.

It said it expected work to begin on the first ward floor in spring 2027 and progress through the tower one floor at a time with an expected completion by February 2028.

Trust chief executive Joe Teape said: "There are no easy answers when managing some of the oldest NHS estate in the country or making changes of this kind.

"We now have the further investment we need to carry out the compartmentation work in the tower and a practical way forward that keeps services within Torbay and South Devon."

MPs welcomed the news of extra funding, with South Devon Liberal Democrat Caroline Voaden saying she was "relieved" work could begin.

Torbay Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling also praised the update, but added: "Serious questions need to be asked about why it took a crisis to break at Torbay Hospital for this money to be released."

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