Over £1.5 billion to help NHS withstand year-round pressure

• Over £200 million for 10 major projects, including new operating theatres, children’s wards and improved maternity and mental health facilities
• £1.3 billion for maintenance, safety and resilience projects across the NHS estate, including £32 million for specific projects that are improving cooling and ventilation systems and strengthening hospitals’ resilience to extreme heat
• Investment will help hospitals prepare for winter and extreme weather, and protect capacity to help alleviate pressures on the health sector

Patients across England will benefit from safer and more resilient NHS hospitals thanks to over £1.5 billion of investment to tackle urgent problems with hospital buildings and facilities.

Over £200 million will fund 10 major hospital projects, while over £1.3 billion will go towards maintenance, safety and resilience improvements.

The investment comes as the NHS adapts to increasing year-round pressures. For decades, hospitals have focused on preparing for winter demand, but periods of extreme heat and sustained pressure on services mean the NHS must be equipped for new challenges. This investment will help hospitals remain safe, open and able to care for patients throughout the year.

The government has announced that this will include more than £200 million for 10 major projects across the country, helping patients receive care in safer, better-equipped facilities.

The investment will fund improvements including:

• new operating theatres
• a new ward for children
• safer maternity and mental health facilities
• improvements to protect vital services that help doctors diagnose and treat patients

Alongside action being taken to improve urgent and emergency care, the investment will also strengthen the long-term resilience of NHS services by addressing ageing infrastructure and critical safety risks across the estate. It will help hospitals cope with changing patterns of demand while maintaining safe, high-quality care for patients.

The investment will also support wider efforts to improve patient flow through hospitals, complementing ongoing work with community and social care services to help patients receive the right care in the right place and leave hospital safely when they are ready.

It is part of a wider programme of more than 950 projects across the NHS, targeting the hospitals and facilities most in need of investment and helping them stay safe and open for patients, including during periods of high pressure over winter.

Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said:

For decades, hospitals have focused on preparing for winter pressures, but the NHS is now facing new challenges, including periods of extreme heat and sustained pressure on services throughout the year.

That’s why we are investing more than £1.5 billion to make our NHS hospitals safer and more resilient, helping them remain open and able to care for patients when pressure on services is greatest.

This includes investment in cooling and ventilation systems to help hospitals adapt to more frequent periods of extreme heat, alongside hundreds of projects to tackle urgent safety and infrastructure risks across the NHS estate.

This is just the start. Through our 10 Year Capital Plan, we will continue investing in the NHS buildings and facilities staff and patients need, helping build a health service that is fit for the future.

The over £200 million investment will deliver major improvements for patients across England, including:

• Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport – £26 million: a new pathology building will protect the testing services doctors rely on to diagnose patients and provide urgent care
• Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol – £41 million: improvements to operating theatres will make the facilities safer and more reliable for patients needing surgery
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead – £12 million: redevelopment of maternity facilities will provide a better environment for women receiving care
• Wycombe Hospital, Buckinghamshire – £25 million: a new clinical building will allow services to move out of an ageing tower and into modern facilities
• Crystal Centre and Linden Centre, Essex – £15 million: 14 new bedrooms will provide additional space for mental health patients and allow existing wards to be improved
• Lister Hospital, Hertfordshire – £11 million: a new children’s ward will provide safe, modern space for children needing hospital care
• Southend Hospital, Essex – £1 million: planning will begin to replace an ageing hospital tower, helping provide safer facilities for maternity, neonatal, cancer and outpatient care
• St George’s Hospital, Stafford – £25 million: improvements to a mental health unit will replace ageing facilities and provide a safer environment for patients
• Royal Free Hospital, London – £32 million: 2 new operating theatres will give patients access to safer, modern facilities for complex operations
• John Howard Centre, London – £25 million: refurbishment will create safer, more suitable facilities for people receiving long-term mental health care

Alongside the 10 major projects, more than 950 schemes have been approved across the country. These projects will fix urgent problems that can affect patients and staff – from improving fire safety and replacing old ventilation systems to upgrading electrical equipment.

This includes more than £32 million for projects that involve improving cooling, ventilation and overheating, helping hospitals adapt to more frequent periods of extreme heat and reducing the risk of disruption to patient care.  These include:

• Manchester Royal Infirmary – £154,000 to replace the PET scanner chiller, ensuring reliable temperature control for highly sensitive imaging
• Rampton Hospital, Nottinghamshire – £527,000 to replace air conditioning in a unit, keeping areas cool to maintain a stable environment for patients, staff and visitors
• St Peter’s Hospital, Ashford – £791,000 to restore reliable cooling capacity to support safe operating conditions within theatres

The improvements will help to:

• maintain safe temperatures for patients and staff
• protect critical equipment
• improve the resilience of hospital services during heatwaves

As part of improving overall estate safety and planning for next summer, the Secretary of State has instructed the NHS to look at heatwaves and other necessary safety schemes – such as increasing resilience to flooding – in the next round, drawing on their experience from this summer.

The investment comes as the NHS prepares for winter and follows a summer of significant pressure on health services. Tackling problems that can disrupt care, including those caused by extreme temperatures and ageing infrastructure, will help NHS staff provide treatment in safe, reliable facilities when demand is at its highest.

It is backed by a record capital budget for health, rising to £15 billion in 2029 to 2030, and the government’s 10 Year Capital Plan, which will put NHS investment on a long-term footing and rebuild and modernise the health service for patients.

Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive of the NHS Alliance, said:

We welcome this investment. The summer heatwaves showed up the poor condition of many NHS buildings which are dilapidated and poorly designed to cope with hot weather.

This funding will help both staff and patient wellbeing. All efforts to improve productivity are a good thing though the context is that the NHS continues to face a sizeable maintenance backlog, including a number of issues that require prompt action to address.

Background information

Investment is from the £6.75 billion Estates Safety Fund, part of the government’s record capital budget for health.

These schemes have been proposed and prioritised by the NHS locally within their Estates Scheme Fund funding allocations, in line with the process set out in the NHS capital planning guidance.

This list represents an initial set of projects approved to proceed to detailed design stage. More schemes will be confirmed in future as NHS investment plans are finalised.

Final scheme cost and scope will be subject to future business case approvals.