Britain lagging in delivery of new hospitals, watchdog says
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[July 17, 2023]
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's hospital building program is
progressing too slowly and is too expensive, an independent public
spending watchdog said on Monday, adding to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's
headaches as he prepares for an election expected next year.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said only 32 of 40 hospitals promised by
former PM Boris Johnson were due to be completed on schedule by 2030.
"Delivery so far has been slower than expected," said Gareth Davies, the
head of the non-partisan NAO.
In a report the watchdog said the government "has not achieved good
value for money" with its New Hospital Program so far, adding it had
spent 1.1 billion pounds ($1.44 billion) by March 2023.
Sunak has made cutting hospital waiting lists one of his priorities for
2023.
The hospital building target was a 2019 election pledge of Johnson, who
resigned as leader last year and has now left parliament. The promise of
40 new hospitals in England by 2030 has been criticised as some of the
proposals were for renovations of existing hospitals.
Eight other hospitals that had been approved by the health ministry
before Johnson made his pledge had not originally been intended to count
towards the target, the NAO said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/17/images/ads/current/guzzardos_sda_HEROS_2023.png)
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![](../images/071723PIX/health41.jpg)
An ambulance leaves St George’s
University Hospital, which has declared a critical incident due to
bed shortages, in London, Britain, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Henry
Nicholls/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/17/images/ads/current/businessdirectory_dailycover_2023.png) Including those projects, there
would be 40 new hospitals by the end of the decade, a health
ministry spokesperson said.
"We remain firmly committed to delivering these hospitals," the
spokesperson said.
Meg Hillier, an opposition Labour Party lawmaker who chairs
parliament's public accounts committee, said there had been a
"woeful lack of progress" towards hitting the target which the
government was now trying to change.
"The Department of Health and Social Care has been trying to move
the goal posts so it can claim it has met its target," she said in a
statement.
"Patients and clinicians are going to have to wait much longer than
they expected before their new hospitals are completed."
($1 = 0.7625 pounds)
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by William Schomberg)
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