FOI Tracker

Freedom of Information Requests

This page tracks all Freedom of Information requests submitted as part of The Heart Campaign Torbay's investigation into cardiac services in Devon.

Payroll quietly moves to Exeter, and the campaign asks the ICB to show what it actually spends on Torbay Update – 2 to 5 July 2026: On 2 July, an announcement on the Trust's staff intranet confirmed that payroll services for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust had already been transferred to a shared service hosted by Royal Devon, with effect from 1 July. Staff were told after the event. The public were not told at all. The campaign has written to the Chief Executive asking whether this is the first stage of a wider programme of moving functions to Royal Devon, and whether it is connected to the pathology relocation to Exeter. On 5 July the campaign submitted two Freedom of Information requests to NHS Devon ICB, whose own published figures show expenditure of roughly £102 million in March 2026 alone. The requests ask what the ICB spends on the Torbay and South Devon population, whether it has ever modelled the cost of moving acute services out of Torbay Hospital, and for a payment-level record of every pound paid to the three Devon acute trusts, including any funding already redirected away from Torbay. Either the efficiency case has been costed and can be published, or it has not been made.

£7.5m loan to move services to Exeter, three formal challenges to the Trust, and the campaign takes its case to the Prime Minister Update – 6 to 10 June 2026: The campaign understands Torbay Council has agreed a £7.5 million loan to the Royal Devon trust to help set up the pathology hub in Exeter. The campaign has written to both hospital boards and the council leader asking for the business case, the impact on local cancer surgery (which relies on rapid tissue testing during operations), and why the existing Torbay building was not upgraded instead. It has formally challenged three of the Trust's recent refusals: the Epic computer contract, the Section 75 adult social care finances, and the pathology evidence base. In two of those, the Trust admitted it holds no analysis showing the savings it claims, and that clinical safety checks were still being written after the lease was already signed. The campaign has now escalated to national government, writing to the Prime Minister on 9 June and to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee on 10 June, arguing that the cumulative effect of changes at Torbay Hospital may amount to a substantial variation in services that legally requires full public consultation.

The Trust spent £4.6m moving cancer testing to Exeter, and won't say who it consulted first Update – 2 to 4 June 2026: The Trust has confirmed in writing that £4.6 million of government money is being spent moving routine tissue-sample testing from Torbay Hospital to a new lab in Exeter, with cancer screening going to the Royal Devon hospital. The funding had to be spent by 31 March 2026, and the Chief Executive and Chair approved the deal on 26 March under "urgent" rules, six days after staff were told the outcome. The whole decision took eleven weeks. The campaign has asked who was actually consulted, what other options were looked at, and what risks were identified. The Trust has described the process but not released the paperwork.

What was said in public did not match what was being planned behind the scenes Official Position vs. Reality: In December 2025, NHS Devon published an open letter to the people of Devon assuring residents there were no proposals to change or close cardiac services. Freedom of Information requests later revealed that, at the same time, internal discussions were already underway about suspending emergency cardiology on an "eight-week test and learn basis." When the campaign challenged this, NHS Devon never answered on the merits.

Earlier updates and detailed background (May and earlier 2026)

Update – 19 May 2026: Answering the campaign's questions about its new Epic patient-record system, the Trust confirmed the funding is ring-fenced, does not count against its normal capital limit, and benefits from "central spending flexibility" not available to other projects such as the cath lab replacement. In short, money is available for Epic that is not available for cardiac services. The Trust refused to release contract values, payment schedules and cost changes, and one refusal appeared to reference "patient records" by mistake. The campaign has asked for these refusals to be reviewed.

Update – 8 April 2026: NHS Devon has confirmed it will not progress the case for change programme "at this time", following a Joint Committee decision on 26 March 2026. The programme has been absorbed into the ICB's five-year commissioning plan. This is a significant development, but the language is carefully qualified throughout - "at this time" and "right now" are not permanent commitments. The campaign's FOI requests remain active and the evidence gathered continues to form part of the public record. The cath lab failure of 8-9 March 2026, the unanswered questions about the Teignmouth patient transfer, and the Trust's financial pressures have not gone away. We will continue to monitor and report.

Update – 21 April 2026: Torbay and South Devon NHS FT issued four FOI decisions on the same day. The Trust refused both cath lab outage requests in full under Section 40(2) (TSD10425 transfer handling and TSD10426 divert log), applying a blanket personal data exemption even to questions about decision-maker roles, escalation pathways, and which receiving hospitals were contacted. The Trust extended deadlines on the EPR Epic procurement requests (TSD10299 and TSD10421) under Section 43(2) (commercial interests) and on the Section 75 Adult Social Care request (TSD10396) under Section 12(1) (cost limit). Revised response date for all three extensions: 20 May 2026. The two refusals are candidates for internal review.

Update – 27 April 2026: The campaign has submitted a comprehensive forensic FOI to Torbay and South Devon NHS FT requesting the full evidence base behind the proposed pathology reconfiguration, including business cases, raw activity data, financial and operational modelling, clinical risk assessments, Carter-based efficiency claims, and the full governance trail from 2018 to present. The request follows NHS Devon ICB's confirmation on 14 April that the Trust Board has approved the relocation of routine histopathology services to a new laboratory at Gadeon House in Exeter, with confirmation due at the public Board of Directors meeting on 7 May 2026. The campaign has set a 7-working-day response deadline (6 May 2026) to obtain the underlying evidence before the public meeting. The statutory deadline is 26 May 2026.

Click any request to view details and download documents where available.

Last updated: 13^th July 2026

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Overdue

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RDF3784-25 Royal Devon & Exeter

OVERDUE

Royal College of Physicians recommendations for cardiology services

Submitted: 20 October 2025 | Was due: 15 December 2025

Seeks the Royal College of Physicians' recommendations and any reviews of cardiology services at RDE conducted after the 2020 report that identified 29 concerns. Response overdue; claimed exemptions challenged.

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