Leytonstone News

Whipps Cross rebuild won’t start until 2032 at earliest

Health Secretary Wes Streeting today confirmed construction would start between ‘2032 and 2034’, with patients saying they are ‘extremely disappointed’ by the delay, reports Marco Marcelline

An illustration showing the initial proposed design for the rebuild, Credit: Barts Health NHS Trust

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting today (20th January) confirmed that construction of the new Whipps Cross Hospital will not begin until “2032” at the earliest.

In a parliamentary statement that provoked “extreme disappointment” from patients who have long campaigned for the need for a new hospital, Streeting said that construction would start between “2032 and 2034”.

Announcing the outcome of his department’s review into the New Hospitals Programme, an NHS infrastructure project first promised by the Conservatives in 2019, Streeting said he had worked out a timeline for Whipps that was “deliverable”.

Setting out a delivery timeline consisting of four waves, with the most urgent hospitals to be delivered within the next three years as part of “wave zero”, Streeting confirmed Whipps was a “wave two” hospital. Funding for each wave totals £15billion, he added.

A new hospital had first been planned to be built by “autumn 2026“, but subsequent delays and lack of central government funding meant Barts Health NHS Trust issued a report In May last year that deemed a rebuild by 2030 “highly unlikely”.

Streeting apportioned the blame for the delay to the Conservatives “unfunded” promise for new hospitals, saying: “Patients were led up the garden path by three Conservative prime ministers, all promising hospitals with no credible plan for funding to deliver them and Conservative MPs who stood on a manifesto promise they knew could never be kept.

“We will not treat the British people with the same contempt, we will never play fast and loose with the public’s trust. The plan we have laid out today is honest, funded and can actually be delivered.”

Mary Burnett from Action4Whipps told the Echo that the “serious” delay in construction was “extremely disappointing”.

She said: “We must make sure that when it is eventually built that there are enough beds, a safe A&E, and the services we need like the Margaret Centre and the Connaught Day Hospital are included.”

Leyton and Wanstead MP Calvin Bailey MBE, said:  “The previous government failed to deliver on Whipps, and we are deeply disappointed that the timetable for a full rebuild will be longer than the Conservatives promised.

I welcome that the Government is focused solely on sound funding and planning for the future, not soundbites about fake ‘new hospitals’. 

I will continue to prioritise work with local leaders on how we can secure progress with rebuilding and maintenance as quickly as possible.” 

The construction of a new 500-space multi-storey car park at Whipps Cross is currently underway and is expected to finish later this year.

The rebuild delay comes amid documented failings at the hospital’s overrun emergency department. In December, a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found Whipps needed to improve safety, privacy and dignity for A&E patients.

The CQC said it had concerns around “poor flow” through the department, adding that  inspectors were “not assured” that triage practices kept patients safe. 

The report also found that the privacy and dignity of patients within the ED was “not always protected” while the number of staff who provide care for mental health patients was deemed “insufficient”. 


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