Epping Forest MP Dr Neil Hudson demands answers at PMQs over plans for new Princess Alexandra Hospital and revamping Whipps Cross
An Essex MP called for the Labour Government to “honour” commitments made by its Conservative predecessor to build a new Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Harlow.
During Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons on Wednesday (Sept 11), Dr Neil Hudson, Tory MP for Epping Forest, asked for answers from PM Sir Kier Starmer.
It comes after Harlow’s new Labour MP vowed to take the fight for a new PAH to the Government following a decision in July to pause the programme launched by the Conservatives.
Chris Vince MP – who won the seat, which also includes the Hallingburys, Hatfield Heath and Hatfield Broad Oak, at the July 4 election – previously said he was setting up a meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting to argue the case for a new hospital for the Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford area.
At PMQs, Dr Hudson said: “The previous Conservative Government committed themselves to rebuilding Whipps Cross hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital, and to the establishment of a new community diagnostic centre (CDC) at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.
“Will the new Labour Government honour those commitments in full and make progress with those projects, which are vital to improving the health services needed by my constituents?
“If it helps the Prime Minister at all with his answer, I can tell him that those services will also help some of the constituents of his Health Secretary [Wes Streeting], just next door in Ilford North.”
In response Sir Keir said: “The honourable gentleman is right to champion the hospitals in his constituency. The problem with what the last Government promised was this: they promised 40 new hospitals, but there were not 40, they were not new and many of them were not hospitals.
“We need to review what we can do and put it on a sustainable, deliverable basis, but we will do that.”
In July, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a review of the Conservatives’ £20bn programme, promised during former PM Boris Johnson’s 2019 General Election campaign, to build 40 extra hospitals by 2030. PAH is one of the projects impacted by the pause. Bosses want to build a new health campus on land off the M11, near junction 7a at Sheering.
The present PAH in Harlow has 414 beds and provides a full range of general acute services, including a 24/7 emergency department, intensive care unit, maternity unit and neonatal intensive care unit. The PAH NHS Trust (PAHT) also provides outpatient and diagnostic services at Herts and Essex Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s.
PAHT serves a population of up to 500,000 people in West Essex and East Herts, centred on the M11 corridor from Stortford to Epping but also including Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne.
Planning permission has been granted for a £14m CDC at St Margaret’s. The new unit would offer multiple tests in one visit to patients across PAHT’s catchment area, including Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and Stansted.
