Plans to Rebuild Frimley Park Hospital Get the Go-ahead

Published on: 23 Sep, 2024
Updated on: 23 Sep, 2024

Frimley Park Hospital. Photo Geograph

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Plans to rebuild Frimley Park Hospital will go ahead despite the government’s review of major NHS spending projects.

The Surrey hospital, made up of around 65 per cent unstable concrete, was granted funding for a replacement building through the previous government’s New Hospital Programme in May 2023. But the new Labour government had announced a spending review in NHS major building projects to plug a £22bn black hole in the public’s finances.

Frimley Park Hospital. Image Google

The Department of Health and Social Care announced Frimley would not be included in the government’s review as it was “out of scope”, according to a statement released on September 20.

Hospitals which are wholly or mostly constructed from Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) have not been included in the review to prioritise patient safety. Projects where hospitals have details on the feasibility of its construction have also been excluded.

RAAC was first discovered at Frimley Park Hospital in 2012. The hospital has about 7,000 RAAC planks in key areas such as operating theatres, intensive care units, wards and corridors.

Caroline Hutton, deputy chief executive for the NHS trust and senior responsible officer for the new Frimley Park Hospital, said the trust was “delighted” to be given the green light and move forward with plans.

She said: “We are being actively supported by the national New Hospital Programme to maintain progress to ensure the new hospital will be open as soon as possible.”

Describing it as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”, Mrs Hutton said the new hospital will transform the future of healthcare for staff, patients and local communities. Patients and staff have raised concerns that deteriorating concrete and leaky building could affect patient safety and the overall health of the hospital

Save Frimley Park Hospital petition

Campaigner Ed McGuinness, whose petition to ‘Save Frimley Park Hospital’ reached nearly 10,000 signatures, said: “From cradle to grave our hospital touches our lives in the most momentous and intimate ways. To have played a small part in securing its future is amazing but YOU [the signatories] have secured your own future moving forward.”

The Surrey Heath resident thanked the “real heroes of the movement” who supported the campaign and shared the petition. Mr McGuinness previously told the LDRS: “By keeping the hospital, the centre of the community, healthy and alive it supports everything else.”

Around 54 hospitals were found to have RAAC in the country, but the severity of its condition differs. Frimley Park Hospital is just one of seven affected hospitals that was put on the new hospital programme to replace the building.

Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “Patient safety is our priority, so RAAC-affected hospitals, alongside those where the Full Business Cases is already approved, will not form part of the review and will continue as planned.”

He said the government will “be honest with patients” and “put the programme on a sustainable footing”. Mr Streeting added that programmes will be reassessed to ensure “clear evidence” of how projects will be funded with a “realistic timeline for delivery”.