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Preston needs new hyper-local health facilities more than ever now that construction of a new Royal Preston Hospital is unlikely to get under way for at least 12 years.
That is according to the leader of Preston City Council, who also says the delay – announced by the government yesterday – does not change the fact that any new hospital, when it is built, should be developed within the city’s borders.
Labour’s Matthew Brown was speaking after news that not a brick will be laid on a replacement Royal Preston – provisionally earmarked for a site in South Ribble – until between 2037 and 2039, some two-to-four years after it was previously expected to be open.
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However, opposition politicians on the city authority have turned their fire on the Labour government following confirmation that the new facility will be in the latter stages of the final wave of the nationwide New Hospital Programme – meaning it is unlikely to open until the early 2040s. One of them has demanded ministers rethink their decision to delay.
Cllr Brown, who, along with Preston’s Labour MP Sir Mark Hendrick, has criticised the suggested location for the new Royal Preston – off Stanifield Lane in Farington, some eight miles from its current Fulwood base – said he hoped the timing could be “reviewed at some [point] in the future to speed up the process”.
However, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service [LDRS] the facility still needed to be in a place that would suit the city’s least well-off.
“The Labour council is lobbying the government, alongside Sir Mark Hendrick MP, to ensure any new hospital remains within our current local authority boundary, as our health needs are often greater.
“We all welcomed the much-needed extra billions for the NHS in the last budget. We will be making the argument for new investment in our communities – including a new city centre health hub – and especially in our less well off communities, to tackle longstanding health inequalities,” Cllr Brown said.
However, Liberal Democrat opposition group leader John Potter condemned both the previous and current governments for what he said was now a collective failure.
“Lots of the blame does belong to the Conservatives for the repeated lies about ‘40 new hospitals’ they peddled during the last government. The Tories kicked the can down the road, knowing the public were about to kick them out of power.
“Unfortunately the new Labour government is now doing the exact same thing. First with social care, and now with our new hospitals.
“Labour were elected on a manifesto promising change. Now they are asking us to wait for over a decade for it to be delivered – that is cowardly and unacceptable.
“Every year of extra delays means our hospitals produce worse outcomes. The brilliant staff will have to continue to struggle with buildings and equipment that are beyond their best or not fit for purpose.
“Labour must think again and bring forward the hospital building programme,” Cllr Brown said.
Conservative group leader Stephen Thompson recognised his party at a national level was in the line of fire.
“No doubt the Tories will be blamed for a lack of funding for hospital builds, but [the Chancellor] Rachel Reeves promised to build hospitals as part of the Labour election campaign. Then she created a financial ‘black hole’.
“As usual you can’t trust this government – broken promises again. They need to listen to President Trump – “Promise made, promise kept”.
“It’s always a good idea to honour election promises. Preston folk and others up and down the country are not going to have an effective health service under this Labour government,” Cllr Thompson added.
Meanwhile, Chorley MP Sir Lindsay Hoyle – who has long championed the Farington plot for a new hospital – told the LDRS he is hopeful that the timetable for the national hospital building programme, on which there are now 34 schemes due to begin construction in phases between this year and 2039, will ultimately require a re-jig from which Central Lancashire will be well-placed to benefit.
“Inevitably, as we go along, some of those [hospitals scheduled] in the [earlier] rounds won’t come through – and then money can be reallocated and [other] schemes can be brought forward at a faster pace. So it’s still open season for that.
“Under the previous government, while we had a commitment in theory, there was nothing concrete – whereas now, of course, with the land purchase going through to secure the site, we’ve got more confidence it’s going to take place, albeit on a slightly longer timeframe.
“So I’m still looking to bring the programme forward as soon as possible and any other developments that can take place which complement the hospital on that site,” Sir Lindsay said.
While the land in Farington has been bought by the NHS, health bosses are keen to stress that no final decisions have been taken about the location of the new Royal Preston, which is currently the subject of a public engagement exercise and will also require formal consultation. They say they have an “exit strategy” if a better site emerges.
Meanwhile, South Ribble’s Labour MP Paul Foster – in whose constituency the proposed Farington site sits – echoed Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s sentiment, saying in an interview with BBC Radio Lancashire, it was important to be “ready” for any shift in the timetable. He also said the delay was “very disappointing”, but blamed it on the Conservatives’ “absolutely chaotic” handling of the programme when they were in power.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said in the Commons on Monday that the national New Hospital Programme had not hitherto been funded beyond March this year, adding the public had been “led up the garden path by three Conservative Prime Ministers”,
However, Shadow Health Secretary Edward Agar said: “To govern is to choose: what to spend money on, what to invest in, and what not to invest in.”
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