Over £100m needed to fix Esher and Walton’s local hospitals - and no new hospital anytime soon for Epsom

A damning Observer report at the weekend on Boris Johnson’s much-trumpeted hospital building programme revealed that only a quarter of the 40 new hospitals he promised have planning permission. It highlighted that one of the projects “causing most concern” is the redevelopment of nearby Epsom and St Helier hospital, which has already been hit by delays.

Recent analysis by the Liberal Democrats had already revealed that progress on the Epsom and St Helier building programme was already under threat as a result of a £700 million cut to the part of the NHS which covers hospital buildings.

The analysis also showed that £100m is needed to clear the hospital maintenance backlog and to repair crumbling buildings at the two main hospitals which serve Esher and Walton.

Nationally the cost of the maintenance and repairs backlog has been revealed by the NHS estates review as an astonishing £10.2 billion. It comes alongside news that the NHS waiting list has hit 7 million people, with nearly 120,000 people stuck on wait lists in the NHS Surrey Heartlands area, which covers Esher and Walton.

Liberal Democrat analysis shows that Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - one of the two main hospitals that serve Esher and Walton - has a backlog of repairs costing £30m, while at Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Hospital Trust, which includes St Peter’s hospital in Chertsey, repairs will cost nearly £76 million.

On top of this backlog, the small print of last November’s Autumn Statement revealed the savage cut to the Department for Health’s capital spending budget, which is used for buildings and infrastructure. The Government’s pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 will be funded via this budget. In October, the Prime Minister refused to confirm whether new hospitals, such as that promised for neighbouring Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - which is already facing a repairs backlog of over £31 million - will get the funds they need to start building. 

Elmbridge Liberal Democrats are calling for the Chancellor to halt his plans “to make patients and staff pay” for the Conservative government’s “economic mess”. They propose urgent investment in local hospital buildings to ensure they are safe and can function effectively. 

Monica Harding, prospective Parliamentary candidate for Esher and Walton, said:

“The Conservative Government are failing patients and NHS staff in our area.  The chronic state of disrepair in our local hospitals is not only a scandal in itself. It is also a symptom of this Conservative government’s dire mismanagement of our NHS.

“The fault lies squarely at the feet of Conservative ministers. It is their inaction which has led us to this point. They should lay out a plan to recruit the staff we need and to remove these repair backlogs immediately, not impose more damaging and dangerous cuts."

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP added:

“This Conservative Government have been running health services into the ground for years. Now they look set to cut the funding needed right now, to deliver on their key promise of 40 new hospitals by 2030. The public deserve better.

“Our nation’s hospitals are in dire need of repair: there are too many horror stories of roofs leaking, crammed corridors and swelteringly hot intensive care wards.

“If the Conservative government does not deliver on their hospital promise, people in Surrey will never forget it.”