Five ‘new hospital’ projects due to miss 2025 completion target

In 2019, the government announced six new “large hospital builds” that would “receive funding to go ahead now” as part of plans to build “40 new hospitals”. 

The commitment was made in the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP), which was published in October 2019 and prompted the subsequent creation of the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) in October 2020. The six projects made up a cohort entitled HIP1 and were due to be completed by 2025.

However, research by HSJ reveals that only one trust – Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust – hopes to complete its project by the target date, with the other five trusts working towards later dates of completion. 

Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust said its target date was “not clear” but HSJ understands it will be after 2025. 

University Hospitals of Leicester Trust said it had not yet agreed a timescale with NHP, but its plans are at a less advanced stage than most of the other trusts in the cohort.

Two other trusts, Hillingdon Hospitals and Manchester University FTs, were added to the cohort – which is now named “pathfinders” – last year. Hillingdon said it expects to complete its project during 2026-27, while MUFT did not respond to questions.

Last summer the NHP’s senior responsible officer Natalie Forrest acknowledged the “brakes had come on” for some of the pathfinder trusts, but she said this was necessary to develop an “alliance” with suppliers to speed up the programme as a whole. 

Open by 2025

In October 2020 the NHP’s scope was increased to 48 projects. Of all the schemes in the programme, eight (including Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust) have been confirmed to HSJ as due to be completed by 2025 – including one scheme in Cumbria which has already been finished. 

However, five are schemes which had already been approved prior to the HIP and – in some cases – where construction had started several years earlier. This includes Liverpool University Hospitals FT, whose scheme for a new hospital was disrupted by the demise of main contractor Carillion in 2018. 

The three schemes which were announced by HIP/NHP and are set to be completed by 2025 are the aforementioned Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust scheme, a new cancer centre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, and the National Rehabilitation Centre (run by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust). 

The new Midland Metropolitan Hospital, run by Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, is expected to be open before 2025, but the trust has not yet confirmed a completion date after experiencing several years of delay due to Carillion’s collapse. Another long-running and large rebuild – the 3Ts project at University Hospitals Sussex FT – could also be finished by 2025, but this has also not been confirmed by the trust. 

In addition to the projects above, there are eight other schemes due to be finished during the period 2024 to 2026, raising the possibility of some being completed by 2025. However, these smaller and cheaper schemes are mainly community hospital refurbishments and new or expanded facilities such as emergency departments or maternity units.

Last year HSJ revealed that the government defined all schemes in the programme as “new hospitals”, whatever their size.

The rest

Of the 27 remaining schemes, 19 have been selected and planning is under way at all the trusts involved. Funding for these projects is not expected to be available until after 2025. The only exception is Moorfields Eye Hospital FT, whose scheme was announced prior to HIP and is expected to be completed in 2026.

The decision on which trusts will be represented in the final cohort of eight is expected in late spring or early summer.

A total of £3.7bn has been allocated to the programme between 2021-22 and 2024-25. A much larger amount of capital will be needed to deliver the remaining schemes by 2030. 

HSJ revealed just before Christmas that the NHP’s performance rating has been improved from “red” to “amber”, after warnings from a government watchdog last summer that delivering the projects was “unachievable”. 

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government is “committed” to delivering all 48 hospitals by 2030.