National Audit Office: Progress with the New Hospital Programme (17 July 2023)

Summary

The NHS in England has around 1,500 hospitals, where most emergency and elective care is carried out. The hospital estate contains many old buildings and its condition has been deteriorating. In response, in 2020, the government announced the New Hospital Programme (NHP) and committed to build 40 new hospitals by 2030.

This report shows the key findings and progress made.

Responding to the National Audit Office (NAO) report on the New Hospitals Programme, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation said:

“Members will be concerned by the delays to many parts of the New Hospitals Programme, as this report from the National Audit Office reveals. Especially as some trusts are having to find additional money to tackle ongoing maintenance issues such as new roofs, when they were led to believe they would be moving to a new site or given funds to build something new as part of this programme. This is adding more pressure on finance departments whose budgets are already stretched to the limit.

“Our members tell us that the maintenance backlog continues to be a significant challenge, impacting productivity and their ability to deliver the transformation required, hindering their progress in reducing the elective backlog and rendering some areas as unusable."