Labour Government says work on new Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow will not begin until at least 2032
Patients will have to wait at least a decade for a new Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) to open.
Labour Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting announced on Monday (Jan 20) the project, now estimated to cost up to £2 billion, is part of a third phase of construction, with work scheduled to begin between 2032 and 2034.
After a review, he said he had worked with the Treasury to secure five-year waves of investment, “ensuring that there is always a balanced portfolio of hospital schemes at different development stages being delivered now and into the future”.
The state-of-the-art medical campus, proposed by the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) on a site near the M11 junction 7a at Sheering, is expected to take around three years to complete.
The Conservatives pledged to build the hospital as Boris Johnson cruised to victory in the December 2019 General Election.
It was included in his Government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP), committing to 40 new hospitals in England by 2030. Hertford and Stortford’s then Tory MP Julie Marson trumpeted that work on the hospital could begin as soon as 2025, “ready for its completion in 2028”.
However, progress on the project was glacial and PAHT’s best guess before last July’s General Election – when Mrs Marson was unseated by Josh Dean as part of a Labour landslide – was that work might begin in 2027. Neither the land sale nor the business case had been completed.
In his announcement on Monday, Mr Streeting said: “The New Hospital Programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable. Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years and there was no credible plan to build 40 in the next five years.
“When I walked into the Department of Health and Social Care, I was told that the funding for the NHP runs out in March. We were determined to put the programme on a firm footing so we can build the new hospitals our NHS needs.
“We are setting out an honest, funded and deliverable programme to rebuild our NHS. I am committed to delivering the Princess Alexandra Hospital and to rebuilding our NHS.”
Mr Streeting added: “Since the election, Josh Dean has used every single possibility to stop and remind me just how important the Princess Alexandra Hospital is for Hertford and Stortford.”
Mr Dean said: “The Conservatives have left behind an unforgivable legacy of broken promises for our residents in Hertford and Stortford. They chose the politics of easy answers, raising expectations that the new hospital our community needs could be delivered overnight when the money simply wasn’t there.
“Members of my family have been treated at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, and I know this will be the case for so many of our residents. We know how important a new hospital is for our community and local residents, staff and patients are right to expect an honest, realistic and deliverable timetable. I’m relieved that is what the Government has set out.
“I will continue to campaign for, and raise the case of, the Princess Alexandra Hospital at every opportunity. I look forward to keeping residents in Hertford and Stortford up to date on the progress of the programme every step of the way.”
His Labour neighbour Chris Vince, whose Harlow constituency includes the Hallingburys, Hatfield Broad Oak, Hatfield Heath, Sheering, Lower Sheering and Matching, said: “I’m delighted that the Labour Government has confirmed at least £1.5 billion of new funding for a new hospital in Harlow.
“After years of false promises from the previous Government, Labour has delivered a timeline for this desperately needed hospital. Today is a good day for Harlow! The building work will commence between 2032 and 2034. This is the first time there has ever been a proper plan for a new hospital.”
Previously, the new hospital was estimated to cost £850m.
PAH, built in the 1960s, cares for an extended catchment of 500,000 people. It has 414 general and acute beds and provides a 24/7 emergency department, intensive care unit, maternity unit and neonatal intensive care unit at Hamstel Road.