Hillingdon Hospital in London
(Picture: PA)Three new hospitals planned for London face delays and a battle for cash due to the soaring cost of completing crisis-hit projects in the North and Midlands, the Standard has been told.
The Government has allocated an initial £3.7bn for 48 new hospitals by 2030, with the rebuild of Whipps Cross, the redevelopment of Hillingdon hospital and a new A&E hospital in Sutton in the first tranche of eight “pathfinder” projects.
However, sources with detailed knowledge of the schemes fear the amount required to complete the Royal Liverpool hospital and Midland Metropolitan hospital schemes, both years behind schedule after the collapse of contractor Carillion, will leave little for London.
The site for the new 600-bed hospital at Whipps Cross, which is expected to cost £800m to £900m, has been readied with the demolition of a former nurses’ accommodation block.
But it has been delayed by a decision by the Department for Health to “reset” the entire new hospitals programme, with the Treasury reviewing the programme’s national business case in a bid to save costs by standardising as many of the projects as possible. A decision is not expected until the summer.
One source told the Standard: “We are going at the pace of the slowest rather than the fastest project. The elephant in the room is the cost. The ‘reset’ is a bid for more money. £3.7bn isn’t going to be enough because of Carillion.”
Whipps Cross was originally one of six hospitals to be built with £2.8bn of cash. Then the programme was widened to 40 and then 48 schemes, including the hospitals blighted by the collapse of Carillion in 2018.
Whipps Cross is now unlikely to be finished before 2027 at the earliest – a year later than the initial 2026 opening date.
Up to 100 patients had to be evacuated in darkness in the middle of the night last July when flooding across London resulted in a power cut in some of the hospital’s newer buildings.
The campaign in support of Whipps Cross has attracted high-level cross-party support, including former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, whose constituents both rely on the hospital.
A petition with more than 11,000 signatures was handed in to the Treasury last month.
There is said to be a “degree of frustration” around the new hospitals programme and concerns that the Government’s “levelling up” agenda is punishing London.
Up to 1,500 homes are due to be built on the sprawling Whipps Cross site once services in outlying buildings are brought into the new hospital, but income from selling or leasing land to developers is not factored into the Treasury’s decision on whether to fund the new hospital.
Alastair Finney, redevelopment director at Whipps Cross, said: “We are ready. We have a fantastic design and we feel we are in a good position.”
Epsom and St Helier NHS trust wants to open a specialist emergency care hospital on a new site in Sutton.
A spokeswoman said: “We have submitted our outline business case to the national new hospitals programme for feedback and are waiting for confirmation of next steps. Once this has happened, we will be able to reaffirm our programme delivery timelines.”
Hillingdon hospital, which serves Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, has long been in a dire state of repair. Its rebuild plans have not been formally submitted but are “continuing well”.
A spokeswoman said: “We can’t confirm exact dates yet but we’re currently working on a timeline of three years to build the new hospital starting in 2023-24.”
The relocation of Moorfields Eye Hospital to St Pancras, under its Oriel initiative, is also in a priority category. It is due to open in 2026.
The eight priority schemes also include a new site for Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow and the rebuilding of Watford General hospital.
Proposals for St Mary’s, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals are on the second tier schedule.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We are fully committed to delivering the biggest hospital building programme in a generation – 48 hospitals in total by 2030 – which is backed by an initial £3.7 billion and will provide state-of-the-art facilities and world-class healthcare provision for patients and staff.
“By taking a more centralised approach to building the hospitals and sharing experience and learnings, we will deliver efficiencies and maximise quality, reduce the overall time taken to build the hospitals, and provide better value for money for the taxpayer.
“We are continuing to work very closely with all trusts in the programme – including Whipps Cross, Epsom & St Helier, and Hillingdon – to develop their plans.”
