New hospitals highly unlikely to be delivered on time, say MPs

MPs from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee have said they have “no confidence” that the government’s plan to deliver 40 new hospitals in England by 2030 will be completed on schedule. In their report the MPs said that the new hospital programme (NHP), which was launched in 2020, had made slow progress, cost more than expected, and was marked by a lack of transparency in scheme selection and uncertainty about overall funding, scope, and timetable.1

By last month no new hospitals had yet opened, said the committee, and in May the Department of Health and Social Care abandoned the idea of building all 40 by 2030, scaling it back to 32 hospitals.2

“Given the prominence and importance of this commitment, progress …