The Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, has announced today that Musgrove Park Hospital’s £79m funding bid for a new Surgical Centre has been successful.

The money comes from the £3.5billion new capital investment fund for hospital buildings and infrastructure that was announced in the Autumn Budget in 2017.

This funding will enable the Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to replace outdated theatres, endoscopy and critical care facilities at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. These new facilities will provide a better patient experience, more efficient working environment, improved efficiency from better service co-location, and provide sufficient capacity to sustain services.

Taunton Deane MP, Rebecca Pow, has worked hard to secure this funding, meeting with Ministers and highlighting the need for the new Surgical Centre in an adjournment debate, held in January this year. During her speech Rebecca stressed that it is essential to upgrade the existing facilities which are housed in pre-1948 buildings built by American Forces as a temporary hospital for the D-Day landings.

Following the debate, Rebecca launched a petition across the constituency, in a bid to gather local support for the cause. Rebecca presented her petition to the House on March 22nd 2018. With over 6000 signatures, the petition showed overwhelming local support for this much needed funding.

Speaking on the announcement, Rebecca said, ‘I am thrilled that Musgrove Park Hospital’s bid for funding for a new Surgical Centre has been successful. This has been very much a joint effort between myself and Musgrove and I am delighted that the hard work has paid off. This new facility will serve not just people from Taunton Deane but from the whole Somerset area and indeed the wider SW region. My petition showed huge support from so many across Taunton Deane, demonstrating the strength of feeling locally for this much needed project and I am so proud that this important project has been allocated this welcome Government funding.’

Announcing the funding allocation today Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt said: “Our ambition is to make NHS care the safest anywhere in the world, we know we have lots of work to do to achieve that but safety in surgery is paramount. When I went and visited Musgrove Park in November, Rebecca bought to my attention just how critical this funding is. But most of all, this is a vote of confidence in the staff at Musgrove Park, who have been working so hard over winter - it’s been a really tough few months and it’s a really nice way to give them some recognition for the really fantastic work they’re doing.”