Wes Streeting, the health secretary, announced a heavily revised timetable for the New Hospital Programme last month, involving long delays to many of the schemes, which caused consternation among bosses of the affected hospitals and local MPs.
Reconstruction of 18 of the 40 new hospitals in England first promised by Boris Johnson in 2019 will not start until at least 2030 – the date by which all 40 were originally meant to open – to help spread the cost, amid stretched public finances.
The cost of eradicating the maintenance backlog at the 18 sites has risen by an average of 10.45% a year each year since Johnson’s infamous “40 new hospitals by 2030” pledge.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited a broken NHS, and Lord Darzi’s investigation found that capital investment has been neglected.
NHS trust bosses have warned that some of the 18 hospitals hit by the delays, such as St Mary’s in London, will collapse before work starts because they are already in such an advanced state of disrepair.
