Responding to the National Audit Office report Progress with
the New Hospital Programme, Nuffield Trust Chief Executive
Nigel Edwards said:
“The government started with a big and quite vague promise around
the new hospitals programme – and it was never clear there was
enough money available to do anything like the scale of
construction that they wanted to. From the start, the definitions
have been confusing and while there has been a substantial amount
of rebuilding and development, many of the projects are not
entirely new hospitals on new sites. It is extremely unlikely
that ministers will meet their target of completing the programme
by 2030, and the NAO report adds even more doubt, especially
given how slowly this ailing programme has been progressing so
far.
“The programme has come after a lost decade of investment in
hospital buildings in England. If the money being committed now
had been invested a decade ago there is no doubt that the NHS
would be in a far better position. Letting hospital buildings
languish for this long has meant that the high priority critical
list for repairs has ballooned. And instead of being able to make
informed choices about where to invest taxpayers’ money in the
best care for the future, we’re in a position of needing to spend
money on whichever hospital is most dangerous or most likely to
fall apart.”
