An increase of at least £10bn in capital funding is required to deliver proposals in sustainability and transformation plans and make NHS facilities fit for purpose, a major government review of the service’s property and estates has concluded.
However, the review by former University College London Hospitals Foundation Trust chief executive Sir Robert Naylor also claims the NHS can raise nearly £6bn itself by having a more “commercial approach” to selling land and buildings.
The review warned the £10bn new capital requirement estimate was based on “a conservative estimate of backlog maintenance at £5bn”, so the real figure could be higher. It said “a similar sum” was “likely to be required to deliver the Five Year Forward View”.
Sir Robert’s review recommends tough new measures to address the NHS’s capital shortage including that STPs and trusts should only be eligible for central capital funding if they have developed “sufficiently stretching plans”.
Areas and trusts “should not be granted capital funding…until they have agreed plans to improve performance against [new] benchmarks [developed by this review]”, the report said.
The review is clear that the NHS will not be able to address the capital shortage without central government support. “[The shortage] could be met by contributions from three sources: property disposals, private capital (for primary care) and from the Treasury.”
Full story in the HSJ, 31 March 2017