Turning up the heat on the New Hospitals Programme

Gideon Amos MP has invited Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, to visit Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital after he admitted its current condition was “not an acceptable situation.”

The long-awaited redevelopment of the hospital is not due to start until 2033.

But Gideon has been campaigning for the work to be brought forward and has issued the invitation following Wes Streeting's comments in a radio interview.

The Taunton and Wellington MP wrote: “As you know, the hospital is desperately in need of a new Maternity and Paediatric Unit, which is scheduled for completion by 2040.

“As you said in your interview with BBC Radio Somerset last week, the current situation is ‘not acceptable’ with leaking roofs and buckets catching rainwater. This description sadly reflects what many patients and staff regularly experience.

“I welcome your commitment to stabilising the New Hospitals Programme. However, after years of delay, local people are understandably frustrated and looking for clarity on what improvements they can expect in the near term.

“A visit would give you the opportunity to see first-hand the challenges facing Musgrove, clarify what immediate capital funding the hospital can expect, and whether there is scope to bring forward elements of the redevelopment.”

Wes Streeting was told by BBC Somerset presenter Emma Britton that she had visited Musgrove as a patient and “it was like a slalom – dodging buckets catching rainwater from leaking roofs.”

She asked the Secretary of State: “Why should patients, staff and visitors to Musgrove face another decade-and-a-half of buildings that are unfit for purpose?"

He replied: “"I'm so sorry that's the experience that patients are having.

“We are investing, not just in the New Hospitals Programme which, when we came in, the timetables were work of fiction - there was no money.

“We've stabilised that, put the money in, and we've got a credible timetable that we can stick to.

“But we're also investing in safety improvements and capital investment so I hope that people will begin seeing improvements in the estates in Musgrove Park, even if the ultimate redevelopment takes longer.

He added: “If I can bring forward the timetables of these schemes … we will do our best to bring forward schemes.

“For me, it was important to at least have timetables and budgets that were credible and that we could stick to.

“But that is not an acceptable situation for either patients or for the poor staff, as well, having to work in those conditions."