Hospital bosses are right to point out that “their decrepit buildings will not survive until the date they are now due to be replaced” (Work on some of Boris Johnson’s ‘40 new hospitals’ will not start until 2039, 20 January).
Surgeons up and down the country tell us that too often they cannot take patients to operating theatres because of flooding, broken lifts and substandard equipment. The knock-on effect is terrible for patients, and for surgeons who are trying to do their best.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, says he is being honest about the new hospital programme (NHP) delivery, but there is genuine fear that some building programmes have been kicked into the long grass. Others have warned that if we don’t address our crumbling infrastructure, delays to the NHP will be a false economy.
The £3.1bn capital funding promised for the Department of Health and Social Care in the autumn budget will take us some of the way, but, ultimately, we need a longer-term commitment to increase this budget, as we and others have called for previously.
If this government is serious about meeting the 18-week target for waiting times by the end of this parliament, then it cannot afford to ignore the decaying and dilapidated buildings affecting productivity and care on a daily basis. Our patients deserve better.
Tim Mitchell
President, Royal College of Surgeons of England
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