NHS Devon has no funds for city hub

PLYMOUTH'S West End health hub is unlikely to be built, after NHS Devon turned down the city council's offer to lend it £45 million.

- WILLIAM TELFORD

NHS Devon bosses told Plymouth city councillors the organisation could not afford to repay the loan - even over 40 years. The council's health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee heard that NHS Devon was £53 million in deficit this year, and next year's budget 'black hole' could be even worse.

Jo Turl, NHS Devon's director of commissioning, told the committee there was simply no way the organisation could afford to build the West End Health and Wellbeing Centre planned for Colin Campbell Court.

She said the focus would now be on how NHS Devon can support the three Stonehouse GP surgeries which would have been rehoused in what would have been one of seven national Cavell Centres.

The only remaining hope is for the Government to do a U-turn and decide to fund the centre after all, when it carries out a health spending review in the autumn of 2024. That is not thought likely and council chiefs are now discussing with University of Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust (UHP) on whether a £25 million diagnostics centre planned for the former Two Trees site in Union Street can be shifted to nearby Colin Campbell Court.