Davey calls for ‘crumbling hospitals taskforce’, as number of DHSC staff working on new hospitals falls by two-thirds

EMBARGO: 22.30 Thursday 6th February

• The number of Health Department staff working on delivering the New Hospital Programme has fallen from 60 to 22 in the past two years
• At hospitals in the New Hospital Programme which have seen their construction dates pushed back there were 506 infrastructure incidents - causing 32 days of clinical time to be lost
• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey calls on the government to create a ‘crumbling hospitals taskforce’ headed up by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty to protect patients from the decaying NHS estate

The number of staff in the Department of Health and Social Care who are working on the New Hospital Programme has fallen by almost two-thirds in just two years, a Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Question has revealed. 

It comes as Party Leader Ed Davey will be campaigning in the South West today (7th February), with all elections now confirmed as going ahead in the region. Whilst on the visit he will call on the government to set up a ‘crumbling hospitals taskforce’ headed up by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty to oversee the protection of patients from the rapidly deteriorating NHS estate.

Previous research by the Liberal Democrats has found that there were 506 infrastructure incidents at sites where projects have been delayed, resulting in 32 days of lost clinical time last year. The research also found that there were almost 100 floods at these sites, accounting for a quarter of all floods in NHS England buildings last year despite making up just 1% of all sites.

Some of the delayed hospitals are already experiencing shocking and dangerous issues putting patient safety at risk. Torbay Hospital, one of the delayed projects and the third oldest hospital in the country with its foundation stone laid in 1925, has suffered from sewage leaks, water ingress and crumbling concrete. It has been found that 80% of the site is in poor or bad quality. 

In January 2024 all toilet facilities had to be closed as sewage was found to be leaking into the wards themselves. Torbay Hospital has also had to place crash decks at the base of one of the buildings to protect from crumbling concrete hitting the floor, costing the hospital over £1 million to mitigate defects from a building that is earmarked for demolition anyway. The hospital is also still using portacabins, installed in 1984, to house its laboratories. 

In 2023, the Royal Berkshire Hospital, another delayed scheme, suffered a burst water pipe, flooding part of the hospital and prompting a power failure. It caused the hospital to ask people to avoid A&E unless absolutely necessary and restrict visiting hours.

Across the NHS estate as a whole, it was found last year that more one in seven NHS buildings were older than the health service itself, founded in 1948. The cost for all the repairs on the NHS estate has also reached a new record high, now standing at £13.8 billion.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called for the delayed construction dates of the projects on the New Hospital Programme to be brought forward. He added that the government should create a ‘crumbling hospitals taskforce’ chaired by Chris Whitty to protect patients from the deteriorating NHS estate and drive forward the New Hospital Programme.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

“Almost every day we hear another horrifying story of patients suffering in unfit hospital buildings after the Conservative Party trashed our NHS, broke their promises to patients and left hospitals to crumble.

“After years of Conservative neglect, the Government needs to turn things around far more quickly. More dither and delay is the last thing patients need.

“Ministers should make building these hospitals an urgent priority, with a new taskforce at the heart of government to drive them forward. Otherwise we will only see more patients suffering and costs spiralling further out of control.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Written Parliamentary Question tabled by Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP can be found here.

Previous Liberal Democrat research on infrastructure incidents at delayed projects on the New Hospital Programme can be found here.

Previous Liberal Democrat research on the number of hospital buildings that are older than the NHS can be found here.

The NHS England repair backlog of £13.8 billion can be found here.

Inside the battle to keep Torbay Hospital from crumbling.

Patients warned 'emergencies only' after flooding at RBH Reading causes power failure.