£14.2m funding for Torbay emergency department

The emergency department at Torbay Hospital has been awarded £14.2m to increase capacity and help reduce urgent and emergency care waiting times.

Initial work for the project began earlier this month and the building work is planned to finish before the end of the year, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said.

The funds were awarded through the national Adult Care Transformation and Innovation Fund.

Mark Roberts, deputy medical director at the trust, said he was "delighted" about the funding - which he said was a "shot in the arm" for the hospital.

The funding will be used to build a new wrap-around extension for the emergency department, the trust said.

Mr Roberts said: "We think it's really going to help the work environment for staff to deliver really good, high-quality care for the patients and the community that we serve."

Mr Roberts, who also works as a consultant physician, said the build would bring extra space for assessment and specialist triage, extra space for receiving ambulances, and space for same day emergency care, and space for specialist mental health assessment and care.

"Obviously, we want our staff to be well supported to work in an environment that's physically fit for purpose, that gives patients the right experience, improves the timeliness that we can see and assess patients, and gives a bit more of a footprint that's more modern and more suited to the purposes of a modern emergency department."

Steve Darling, MP for Torbay, said: "Staff have been soldiering on in an emergency department that is sadly not fit for purpose.

"I'm delighted that this investment means both staff and patients will benefit from much more modern facilities at Torbay Hospital."

Caroline Voaden, MP for South Devon, said she was "well aware" of how hard staff were working to care for patients across the area "in ageing facilities".

She said the challenges they faced because of buildings that were "not fit for purpose" were "immense".

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