Government announces details of hospital building programme in England
BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5804 (Published 30 September 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;366:l5804The government has announced a £2.8bn (€3.1bn; $3.4bn) hospital building programme in England that will fund six new facilities between now and 2025.1
An additional 34 hospital rebuilds will be delivered between 2025 and 2030, subject to business case approvals, as part of a long term programme of investment.
Announcing the plans at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on 30 September, the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, described the scheme as “the biggest hospital building programme in a generation.”
Healthcare leaders welcomed the investment but said it was piecemeal and fell short of what was needed for the whole country.
The plan will see £2.7bn released straight away to build new “large hospitals” at six trust sites between now and 2025:
Barts Health Trust, London
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, Surrey
West Hertfordshire Trust
Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, Essex and Hertfordshire
University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, and
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
A further 21 schemes will share £100m in “seed funding” to develop business cases for new hospital developments.2 These schemes aim to rebuild 34 hospitals in total, with some schemes involving the development of more than one hospital site.
The investment came after the government’s recent commitment to release £1.8bn to fund new equipment and buildings at selected sites across England.3 However, that pledge has raised questions as to whether all of it was actually new funding.4
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “The NHS badly needs more capital funding to invest in new buildings and equipment and to deal with a maintenance backlog that now stands at £6bn. Today’s announcement is very welcome and will bring vital investment in some key areas of the country.”
But he added, “While this extra investment is very welcome, it represents the start and not the end of what is required. Needless to say, there are many other areas of the country that also need similar capital investment, and we will push for those local services to be prioritised in future roll outs.”
Anita Charlesworth, head of research and economics at the Health Foundation, said that, while the funding was welcome, its distribution was “piecemeal” and too focused on hospitals. “This is a very narrow view of the investment needed to secure the health service for the future,” she said. “There is also an urgent need for investment in GP premises across the country, and the NHS is facing severe staff shortages, with over 100 000 vacancies.”