The government has cut back the funding for eight promised ‘new hospitals’ once again, according to a report by the HSJ, which has learnt that the ‘pathfinder’ cohort of new hospitals, will receive just £1m each in 2022-23, an amount that falls far short of what is needed for the projects to progress and what the trusts had expected.
The ‘pathfinder’ cohort of new hospitals is part of the government’s promised ‘48 new hospitals’ (previously 40 new hospitals), although it is now known that most of the projects are not new hospitals. There are only 13 complete rebuilds or new hospitals, with the other projects including a combination of A&E expansions, treatment units or upgrades, 14 projects that have no confirmed funding or plans, and eight that haven’t been announced yet.
Back in 2019, six of the eight ‘pathfinder’ cohort of projects for complete new hospitals, were reported to be “ready to go” by the then health and social care secretary Matt Hancock and were scheduled for completion by 2025. At the time The Lowdown published an analysis of the ‘40 new hospitals’ claim showing that it did not stand up to even minimal scrutiny.
Full story in The Lowdown, 24 May 2022