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David Oliver beautifully articulated this frequently peddled lie of the 40 New Hospitals to the British public. £3.7 Billion was never going to build more than 5 new hospitals at most and this clear lie should have been called out early by NHSE, leaders from NHS Trusts and Senior Clinicians.
Now the even worse issue is that the New Hospitals programme is also wasting a huge amount of the budget in working on standardisation to "save costs" when it is clear that there is no "One size fits all" solution to building hospitals. The best hospital build projects take into account the local needs, have good engagement with the local patients and population and staff with a view to future needs and ways of working and hence will always need to be bespoke solutions. A good design and build partner will help to keep costs down and work with the project team to deliver what is needed locally, the 'centre' driving this usually results in being over budget and delays.
Re: David Oliver: The “40 new hospitals” pledge was always a mirage
Dear Editor
David Oliver beautifully articulated this frequently peddled lie of the 40 New Hospitals to the British public. £3.7 Billion was never going to build more than 5 new hospitals at most and this clear lie should have been called out early by NHSE, leaders from NHS Trusts and Senior Clinicians.
Now the even worse issue is that the New Hospitals programme is also wasting a huge amount of the budget in working on standardisation to "save costs" when it is clear that there is no "One size fits all" solution to building hospitals. The best hospital build projects take into account the local needs, have good engagement with the local patients and population and staff with a view to future needs and ways of working and hence will always need to be bespoke solutions. A good design and build partner will help to keep costs down and work with the project team to deliver what is needed locally, the 'centre' driving this usually results in being over budget and delays.
Competing interests: No competing interests