MP’s backing for Teignmouth Hospital

Anne Marie Morris says hospital still has a role to play

Under-fire Teignmouth Hospital still has a vital role to play in the town’s health services, according to MP Anne Marie Morris.

The Conservative MP, whose Newton Abbot constituency includes Teignmouth, has backed the hospital in her weekly column, published on her own website.

She was commenting after Teignbridge Council’s planning committee voted to give the go-ahead for an £11 million new health hub in the town centre where GP practices and other services will come together under one roof.

At the same time members of Devon County Council’s health and adult care scrutiny committee decided to go on gathering evidence before deciding whether to refer Teignmouth Hospital’s planned closure to the health secretary for a second time.

The community hospital on Mill Lane, the first to be built by the NHS in 1954, is due to close, with services moving to Dawlish Hospital and the new health centre instead.

Campaigners have been fighting to save it, and supporters say there is much more pressure on the health system than there was when the original closure decision was made, before the pandemic.

Ms Morris said last year that she was concerned that the decision to close the hospital was not in the best interests of Teignmouth residents. She said in her column that she had been meeting regularly with all those involved in delivering the health hub.

“Finding a solution – and quickly – isn’t optional,” she said. “Without it, the quality and quantity of primary care Teignmouth deserves can’t be delivered.

“The future of the hospital is a critical issue and I want an outcome which enables it to continue to be part of the health and wellbeing provision of the community.”