Work will not begin until 2039 on some of the “40 new hospitals” Boris Johnson promised to build by 2030, after a Labour rethink on a pledge it called “a work of fiction” by the Conservatives.
Wes Streeting on Monday told MPs that construction on seven of the 40 projects in England would begin until 2025-2030, with another nine in starting in 2030-2035 and a further nine in 2035-2039.
The revised timetable for the new hospitals programme means decrepit hospitals that have been falling into ever-deeper disrepair will have to continue treating patients in cramped and increasingly unsafe environments for a long time into the future, until their successors are ready.
Ahead of likely criticism of the delay from MPs and hospital bosses, the health secretary acknowledged that “patients in some parts of the country will be disappointed by this new timetable”.
But he blamed the situation on the Tory government lying about the scheme, including the party’s most recent prime ministers: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Johnson.
He also acknowledged that the costs of delivering the series of desperately needed new facilities had shot up from the £20bn the Tories cited in 2023 to more than £30bn. Labour would put an average of £3bn a year into making the schemes a reality, starting in 2030, he said.
That will fund four “waves” of hospital building projects. The seven schemes of “wave zero”, in which construction is already well under way, will be finished by 2028, Streeting said.
Patients are right to be disappointed, he told the Commons. “They were led up the path by three Conservative prime ministers, all promising hospitals, with no credible plan or funding to deliver them, and Conservative MPs who stood on a manifesto promise they knew could never been kept.”
More details soon …
Source: theguardian.com
