MP warns patient safety mustn’t be put at risk as new Musgrove Park unit delayed

Taunton and Wellington’s Liberal Democrat MP, Gideon Amos, has slammed successive governments for delays following the announcement that the start of construction on Musgrove Park Hospital’s much-needed new maternity and paediatric unit will not be until 2030 at the earliest.
Mr Amos made the need for investment in social care and the NHS - particularly in Musgrove Park - his number one campaign issue at the General Election last summer and has credited its staff with “decades of superb care for so many local people including my family”.
The Conservatives, in the last two General Elections, promised a “new hospital” for Taunton would be completed “by 2030”.
The Health Secretary has now announced that, instead, construction on a new maternity and paediatric unit at the hospital will not start on site until “2030 to 2035”.
Mr Amos slammed the “catalogue of delays” calling for “urgent interim measures” to support Somerset NHS Trust and patients so the current department can keep operating until the 2030s.
He said: “This announcement makes it crystal clear that, despite what people were promised, there was never going to be a new hospital in Taunton because the last Conservative government never allocated any money.
“Care and the NHS was my number one priority at the General Election so I’m glad Musgrove Park’s new maternity and paediatric unit is up in the second wave of proposed projects - that’s a promotion from the last government.
“Patients and residents will be bitterly disappointed though that the start date is no sooner than the 2030s - that’s far too late. Musgrove Park needs the new unit and needs it now.
“I’m calling for an urgent meeting with the Minister to establish the support which needs to be put in place so that mums giving birth and everyone in the current maternity and paediatric buildings can continue to use them safely and with all essential maintenance being done rapidly in the next few months”.
Mr Amos is also supporting Lib Dem calls on the government to provide an impact assessment of the effects of these further delays.
He added: “I’m incredibly grateful to the superb staff at Musgrove who have cared for so many local people including my family here in Taunton over many decades but there's only so much they can cope with.
“Staff fainting in 30-degree heat in summer and being rained on indoors in winter is totally unacceptable.
“It’s a maternity unit where wet towels are lying on floors to soak up the rain coming through the roof and there’s a limit to how many buckets can be put in corridors while maintaining a safe hospital.
“No one should be put at risk by these delays, and I’ll be working with the hospital trust to now secure the support urgently needed from now until completion of our new unit.”