Forty NHS hospitals and community services will get £760m to modernise and transform their buildings and services in the year of the health service’s 70th birthday.
As well as a whole new emergency care development in Shropshire, we are backing local NHS services with new buildings, beds and wards so that staff who have been working incredibly hard over winter can have confidence that we are expanding capacity for the future
The funding was announced today by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, and marks the biggest investment of its kind in the NHS in over 10 years.
The money will be spent on programmes to meet local demand, such as new urgent care centres and the refurbishment of mental health facilities.
The Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) will receive £300m to transform local hospital services.
It proposes to use the funding to develop an emergency care site and a separate planned care site, with 24-hour urgent care centres at both facilities.
The remainder of the money will be awarded to 39 smaller projects, including:
- £6m to upgrade services at eight trusts across Yorkshire
- £8m for a new health and wellbeing centre to join up local NHS services in Kent
- £13m for two new urgent care centres in Newton Abbot and Torquay, and the refurbishment of Torbay Hospital’s A&E department
- Several million pounds for local NHS services in London, including one project worth up to £11m
Announcing the money, Hunt said: “As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday, we are backing it with one of the largest capital programmes in NHS history.
“As well as a whole new emergency care development in Shropshire, we are backing local NHS services with new buildings, beds and wards so that staff who have been working incredibly hard over winter can have confidence that we are expanding capacity for the future.
“Further major projects are also under consideration across the country and we intend to announce one large scale scheme the size of the Shrewsbury and Telford plan every year going forward based on high-quality plans coming forward from local NHS leaders.”
The government is also releasing £150m to support the NHS’s work to become more efficient. This additional money will be used to:
- Improve the use of a digital programme that helps the NHS use its workforce better
- Enable more-efficient use of energy in hospitals, which could save the NHS £12m a year in the first three years
- Improve pharmacy IT and administration systems to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety
The full list of hospitals to receive STP funding is as follows:
The North of England
- Lancashire and South Cumbria (up to £31.2m)
- West Yorkshire (up to £22.6m on four projects)
- Humber, Coast and Vale (up to £7.5m)
The Midlands
- Midlands and East Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin (up to £312m)
- Midlands and East Derbyshire (up to £6.5m)
- Midlands and East The Black Country (up to £12.3m on two projects)
- Midlands and East Norfolk and Waveney (up to £0.6m)
- Midlands and East Suffolk and North East Essex (up to £87.1m on three projects)
- Midlands and East Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Luton (up to £7.1m on two projects)
London
- North West London (up to £4.2m on two projects)
- North Central London (up to £0.3m)
- South West London (up to £25.7m on four projects)
London
- Kent and Medway (up to £19.5m on five projects)
- North Central London (up to £0.3m)
- South West London (up to £25.7m on four projects)
- Midlands and East Norfolk and Waveney (up to £0.6m)
- Midlands and East Suffolk and North East Essex (up to £87.1m on three projects)
- Midlands and East Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Luton (up to £7.1m on two projects)
South of England
- South Sussex and East Surrey (up to £19.3m)
- South Surrey Heartlands (up to £0.5m)
- South Devon (up to £29.5m on two projects)
- South Somerset (up to £79.4m)
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight (up to £30.8m on three projects)
- Gloucestershire (up to £39.5m)
- Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire (up to £2m)
