Health Secretary Matt Hancock has launched a hospital building programme as part of a major push by the Conservatives to ensure the NHS is delivering for patients across the country.
The multi-billion pound new Health Infrastructure Plan is said to deliver a long-term, rolling five-year programme of investment in health infrastructure, including capital to build new hospitals, modernise our primary care estate, and invest in new diagnostics and technology.
As part of the Health Infrastructure Plan, 40 new hospitals will be built across England over the next decade. Six of the hospital builds are getting the full go-ahead today, and a further twenty one new build projects (consisting of thirty four new hospitals in total) are receiving seed funding to kick start their schemes. Other projects will be able to bid into this and other future waves too.
The package includes £200 million to replace MRI, CT scanners and breast cancer screening equipment, so that no scanner in the NHS is more than 10 years old. And the Government is also confirmed that the Department of Health and Social Care will receive a new multi-year capital settlement at the next capital review to develop capacity, plan effectively, get better value for money and deliver on the commitments we have already made.
The six hospitals getting the full go-ahead today are: Whipps Cross Hospital, Epsom and St Helier Trust, West Hertfordshire Trust, Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. These projects are being funded with a £2.7 billion cash injection of brand new money from the Treasury.
The projects receiving the £100 m seed funding include Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham and the North Manchester General Hospital.
The new investment comes in addition to the £33.9 bn increase in cash funding for the day-to-day running of the NHS being delivered by the Government over the next five years.
Commenting on the announcement, Richard Murray, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “[The] announcement is very welcome news for the hospitals selected, the staff that work there and the patients that use them. A significant amount of work is needed to bring NHS buildings and equipment up to scratch after years of capital budgets being raided to cover day-to-day running costs.
“On the face of it, the various schemes being pledged by the government certainly sound like substantial investment, but these piecemeal announcements are not the same as having a proper, multi-year capital funding plan. The lack of clarity around how the new schemes have been selected and how the pledges fit within the Department for Health and Social Care’s overall financial settlement makes it difficult to tell how generous the government is being.
“[The] announcement focuses on new schemes at acute hospitals but a longer-term investment programme is also needed to tackle the £6 bn NHS maintenance backlog, upgrade GP surgeries that are no longer fit for purpose, and modernise the NHS so it can take advantage of new technology, particularly given the ambitions of the NHS Long Term plan to develop facilities in the community.
“As well as shoring up buildings, urgent action is needed to shore up the NHS workforce. Severe staff shortages are the biggest challenge facing the health service, with nearly 100,000 vacancies in NHS trusts. If the government really wants get the best value out of this new capital spending, it will need considering alongside a comprehensive plan to tackle staffing shortages in both the NHS and social care, future plans for public health spending and investment in social care, to help keep people well for as long as possible and out of hospital when they don’t need to be there.”
