Health chiefs are staying tight-lipped on the future of plans for a major expansion of Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
A proposed £190m Richardson Wing, which would house a number of the RVI’s specialist services, missed out on funding last week as the Government confirmed it will pay to rebuild five other sites in major need of repairs. City hospital bosses had launched a bid in 2021 to secure funding for the RVI extension, which has also been referred to as the New Specialist Hospital, from the Department for Health’s New Hospital Programme.
But, after failing to make the latest list of successful applications last week, the future of the project is unclear. When asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Tuesday, the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said it was unable to provide any update on whether the Richardson Wing proposal was still being pursued or whether other funding sources would be sought.
