Old Blockbuster store to become new health centre in Torquay

Plans have been submitted

Torquay is to get a new health centre offering scans and X-rays on the site of an old Blockbuster video store.

The centre in Market Street is part of a £100 million overhaul of Torbay Hospital and its health services.

The ‘once-in-a-generation’ transformation of the hospital will get rid of some buildings dating back almost a century.

Adel Jones, director of transformation and partnerships at the Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust, told a recent Torbay Council meeting: “These are really exciting times. We haven’t seen this kind of investment in the NHS here for a very long time.”  

Work on the hospital site at Shiphay has already begun. A new radiotherapy suite will open next week, with a new endoscopy suite due before Christmas and new day-case theatres to open in the new year.

The radiotherapy suite cost £2.8 million, with its new scanner funded by Torbay Hospital League of Friends.

A planning application for the town centre development has now been submitted on behalf of InHealth, a private company which provides diagnostic services and works with NHS trusts across the UK.

Its services include MRI scanning, X-rays, ultrasound and CT scans, and it already has more than 100 locations nationwide

The aim is for GPs to be able to refer patients directly to a diagnostic centre for a scan or other test so that the most appropriate course of treatment can be decided.

The application says there will be no changes to the building’s scale or height.

It sums up: “The development will provide benefits to the local community by providing improved access to improved healthcare facilities and by supporting the NHS in easing patient referrals.

“A medical diagnostics centre will provide a new service that meets the needs of Torquay’s communities, thus contributing to economic, social and environmental objectives.

“The unit has been vacant for over six years and the proposal will bring the premises back into a beneficial use.”