Concerns over the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) have been growing in recent months, since NHS Providers warned that it was on “shaky ground” last July, since half of the trusts in the programme were not confident that they had been allocated sufficient funding to deliver their project.
In October the fears were reinforced by a report to the NHS England Board that again warned that “The Programme has not, to date, had a budget for the full Programme agreed by HMG, a Programme scope or timeline.”
NHS England has also been keen to emphasise that they are not responsible for the delays and the problems: “It is also currently a DHSC Programme, although it is supported by NHSE staff,” a point echoed again at the December Board meeting.
The report went on to reiterate that not only are many of the schemes much less than a new hospital, but the 40 projects incorporate seven schemes that were already in progress before the promised building programme was announced (as discussed above):
“The New Hospital Programme has now met some major milestones; the first of the full 40 hospitals – the Northern Centre for Cancer Care – has been completed, and six further hospitals are under construction.”
Full story in The Lowdown, 7 February 2023