FAQs: Torbay Hospital Tower Block receives fire enforcement notice
What has happened?
Torbay Hospital has the third oldest hospital estate in the country, and its Tower Block has recognised fire safety risks linked to its age, design and condition. The Trust has been managing these through maintenance, practical safety measures, staff training, evacuation planning and ongoing investment, and has recently secured £1.8 million of Government funding to support immediate improvements.
However, this funding isn’t enough, and the Trust has now been served with an enforcement notice from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service and a warning notice from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This notice is focused on ensuring that everyone in the tower block can be evacuated safely in the event of a fire.
What happens next?
Building work is needed to make the Tower Block safe, but this will take time. The Trust is therefore considering temporarily relocating some services from the Tower Block to other parts of the hospital and to Trust sites in local communities. This would reduce the number of inpatients in the building, allow it to be evacuated safely if there were a fire, and create the space needed for the safety work to be carried out.
The Trust has said it will not move any services until it is confident the right preparations are in place, including workforce planning, patient pathway reviews, training and readiness checks. It is working with clinicians and the fire service to develop and test its proposals, and it says any changes will be made carefully so that care remains safe and high quality, with support for the staff affected. Patients will continue to have access to the same services, and the Trust will share details publicly once its plan has been agreed.
What am I doing about it?
Steve Darling MP, Martin Wrigley MP and I have written urgently to the Health Secretary. In our letter, we:
welcomed the £1.8 million, but said it was never going to be enough to make the Tower Block safe
pointed out that the hospital serves almost 300,000 residents, with an extra 100,000 visitors in the tourist season, so losing these beds would have a huge impact
asked for the further £8 million needed for urgent works
asked for New Hospital Programme funding to be brought forward
It's deeply concerning to read about the enforcement notice for Torbay Hospital's Tower Block, especially given the age and the severe impact losing beds would have on 300,000 residents. While the £1.8 million is a start, it's clearly not enough, and it feels like we're facing a critical slope unblocked only by further urgent funding. What concrete actions are being taken to secure the full £8 million and prevent disruption to patient care?