Voluntary redundancy scheme opens at hospital

A voluntary redundancy scheme has opened to all staff at a town's hospital amid financial pressures.

Chiefs at Torbay Hospital said they have been open with colleagues about their "very real financial pressures", adding they had already taken "significant steps" to deliver savings.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said the majority of its funding was spent on staffing and it needed to "reduce costs further".

Torbay MP Steve Darling said there had been a lack of investment at the hospital for years, adding: "For these redundancies to start to kick in is extremely concerning."

Darling has now called for an urgent meeting with the hospital's chief executive Joe Teape.

The trust's income was £700m in 2024/25, according to its latest annual report, and staffing made up more than half of that at nearly £400m.

A report from the trust, said the actual gap between income and expenditure in 2025/26 was £33.7m.

The report states the difference was driven by "both volume and cost" with demand attributed to "Torbay's older population, high prevalence of learning disabilities and other complex needs, and high levels of deprivation".

The trust said the decision to introduce a time-limited voluntary redundancy scheme had not been taken lightly.

"All applications will be carefully assessed to ensure patient safety and service delivery are not compromised," the trust said.

"There is no obligation for anyone to apply, and support is available to all staff."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government had invested £26bn into the NHS which has been spent on "an extra 12,000 doctors, 16,000 nurses, and 8,000 mental health workers compared to July 2024".

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