The repairs bill at 18 crumbling hospitals is set to soar to £5.7bn because replacing them will take so long, new analysis shows.
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.
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.
The revised rebuilding timetable could see the cost of tackling the backlog of repairs at those hospitals spiral from £2.1bn to £5.7bn, according to projections by the Liberal Democrats.
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. If it keeps increasing at the same rate it will hit £5.7bn by the time construction is due to begin in the 2030s, the Lib Dem analysis found.
For example, the repairs bill at the seven hospitals where rebuilding will not start until 2037 could more than treble from £722m to £2.378bn by then. They include Nottingham’s two acute hospitals, the Royal Berkshire in Reading and hospitals in Bexhill and Hastings in East Sussex.
Some hospitals are so dilapidated that they are “outright dangerous” for staff and patients, the NHS Confederation said in December.
One of the delayed projects, Torbay hospital in Devon – the NHS’s third oldest hospital – has had to cope with sewage leaking into wards, water leaks and concrete becoming dislodged. It has to spend £1m a year to keep buildings functional that are due to be demolished anyway.
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. He did so after detailed discussions with the Treasury, which allocated £3bn a year to the programme.
“The government has delayed parts of its national hospital building programme to help save money in the here and now,” said Siva Anandaciva, head of policy at the King’s Fund. “But this may well end up being a false economy as millions of pounds of taxpayer funding will be needed to maintain – rather than replace – these sub-standard buildings.
“Right now there are some NHS facilities that are no longer fit for purpose and which are posing a risk to patients and staff alike. The government inherited NHS facilities that were already in a poor state. But because of these delays to hospital building plans the state of these facilities may only get worse in the coming years.”
Helen Morgan, the health and social care spokesperson for the Lib Dems, said: “Communities are being forced to put up with ramshackle hospital buildings, utterly unfit for purpose, for years longer than they were promised. It is a complete disgrace. The Conservative party should hang its head in shame for leading communities up the garden path, making promises to them they knew they never intended to keep.
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“But the government’s lack of ambition is also shocking. It seems the government has embraced the false economy of dither and delay, accepting a managed decline of our NHS instead of rebuilding it into the envy of the world it once was.”
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. No one is under any illusions that the NHS estate we inherited is crumbling but the New Hospital Programme was on a completely unrealistic timeframe and was unfunded. The programme is now on a credible and sustainable footing and we are committed to delivering all schemes.
“This government is investing £13.6bn in NHS capital next year, the highest annual capital investment since before 2010. That includes tackling the backlog of critical NHS maintenance and repairs and dangerous Raac concrete to help ensure hospitals are safe and sustainable.”
The spokesperson added: “The Lib Dem manifesto pledged £17bn less for health and care than this government invested at the budget. The truth is, if their plans were being implemented, they would be building fewer hospitals, not more.”