Construction under way on £20m surgical hub

Work has begun on a new day surgery centre to provide care for children and adults in Devon.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said its construction partner had "scrubbed in" and started to lay the structural foundations for the new hub on Tuesday.

Chris Tidman, deputy chief executive at the trust, said: "It will transform our surgical services into modern, flexible environments for both our colleagues and patients.

"Patients are still waiting longer than we would like for treatment and this hub is central to us seeing more patients and returning to national waiting time standards."

The trust said it was successful in securing £20m of NHS capital funding at the end of 2025 that would fund the hub Royal Devon and Exeter (Heavitree) Hospital.

The trust said it was part of a wider £80m investment project that would "modernise our estate" so they could "deliver high-quality and efficient care".

It said as the investment project over the next three years would include:

• Community diagnostic centres - create a new one in Bideford and expand the existing one at Nightingale Hospital Exeter with three additional scanners
• Deliverenhanced same-day emergency care facilities at both Exeter and Barnstaple
• A new National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIRH) hub in north Devon
• New hospital residences at North Devon District Hospital

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