Anger over plan to shut £5m unit after just a year

STAFF BLAST 'COST-CUTTING EXERCISE' DESPITE PRESSURES

- WILLIAM TELFORD

PLYMOUTH medical chiefs are expected to shut a £5m hospital unit which only opened last year.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) has already closed one ward in the Discharge Assessment Unit (DAU), at Mount Gould, and is reviewing another with staff predicting its days are numbered.

The trust said the DAU, where patients were sent from Derriford Hospital before being allowed home, had been a success but is no longer needed.

But staff say the unit is still vital and have branded the closure "a cost-cutting exercise". One person said: "This will increase pressure at Derriford going into winter, with ambulances queuing outside already." UHP and Livewell Southwest jointly opened the DAU in June 2023 with much fanfare and MP Luke Pollard doing the honours. Two new wards were created called Saltram and Lopes so medically fit patients could be sent from Derriford Hospital to the facility to fully recover before returning home.