Health Secretary Steve Barclay has admitted the government’s commitment to building 40 “brand new” hospitals by 2030 isn’t quite what it seems.
Earlier this week, the minister insisted his department was still on track to meet the manifesto commitment made by Boris Johnson during his 2019 election campaign.
However, pressed on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Barclay acknowledged that the 40 projects also include a range of building work on existing sites.
“I want you to be straight about this because, for a normal person, building a new wing or maybe refurbishing part of a hospital is not a brand new hospital,” Kuenssberg said.
“If you save up and get a new conservatory on the back of your house, you don’t have a new house. So can you be honest with people? You’re not building 40 brand new hospitals.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has admitted the government’s commitment to building 40 “brand new” hospitals by 2030 isn’t quite what it seems.
Earlier this week, the minister insisted his department was still on track to meet the manifesto commitment made by Boris Johnson during his 2019 election campaign.
However, pressed on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Barclay acknowledged that the 40 projects also include a range of building work on existing sites.
“I want you to be straight about this because, for a normal person, building a new wing or maybe refurbishing part of a hospital is not a brand new hospital,” Kuenssberg said.
“If you save up and get a new conservatory on the back of your house, you don’t have a new house. So can you be honest with people? You’re not building 40 brand new hospitals.”
Barclay replied: “Some of the schemes include, for example, a hospital being gutted and fully refurbished – if you look at Charing Cross, for example, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.
“And we’ll be starting work to decant some of the facilities and then refurbish, so there’s a range of things within the scheme.
“That was a debate in 2020 – we’re sticking with those schemes, but we’re accelerating those schemes, which include five brand new hospitals.”
Even this is open to interpretation, depending on what ” new ” means, as this appears to be about the government’s promise to rebuild five hospitals made with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in desperate need of repair.
Asked why he still insists on repeating the “40 brand new hospitals” line, Barclay said: “Well, if it’s a new wing, a new facility, women and children’s hospital, for example, as part of a wider campus… what matters to you as a patient is whether the facilities are state of the art, whether they’re new.”
Mr Barclay also acknowledged that some of the promised hospitals would be completed after 2030, but 40 projects would still be finished by that date.
Pressed over whether a refurbishment could be considered a “new” hospital, Mr Barclay told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “If it’s a new wing, a new facility, a women’s and children hospital, for example, as part of a wider compass… what matters to you as a patient is whether the facilities are state of the art, whether they’re new.”
Mr Barclay said: “We’re being honest in saying there will be difficulties on some schemes. Local factors often need to be worked through like land acquisitions, service redesign… which make it challenging to complete those by 2030.”
He added: “We are being honest that some schemes will take slightly longer than 2030, but we’re going to get on with them.”
The commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 was made by Boris Johnson and included in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto.
The five hospitals are at risk of collapse because of deteriorating concrete infrastructure.
Earlier this week, Mr Barclay insisted the government would still meet its manifesto pledge because, as well as these five hospitals, it would build three mental health hospitals on top of the promised projects.
On Sunday’s programme, he continued to refer to “40 new hospitals” even though he finally accepted that not all of them would be brand new.
He told the BBC: “What the manifesto said was 40 new hospitals; that is what we committed to in the House [of Commons] on Thursday.”
A BBC investigation last week found building work was yet to start for 33 of the government’s promised 40 new hospitals.
