Health Minister visits new hospital programme scheme at Royal Cornwall Hospital
Visits have been made across the South West as part of the commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030
This week Health Minister Lord Markham visited Royal Cornwall Hospital ahead of the launch of the new Women and Children's Unit - scheduled to be opened by 2028.
Lord Markham MP visited three hospitals across the South West as part of a summer tour to discuss the government’s plans to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 with staff, patients and local leaders.
Seeing first-hand how the new Women and Children’s Hospital at the Royal Cornwall Hospital site will improve patient care, the Health Minister spoke to staff about how the new hospital will join up a range of services, including maternity, neonatal, paediatric, and obstetric and gynaecology, all in one building - allowing services to work more closely together.
Lord Markham also discussed the rebuild of North Devon District Hospital and what it will mean for those who access these facilities, including improving the working lives of staff and enabling patients to access facilities that are fit for the future and meet their needs. In addition the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will benefit from improved mental health facilities at its paediatric ward and a new discharge hub to ensure patients leave hospital as soon as they are medically fit, increasing bed capacity for those who need it.
Finally, the Health Minister visited Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton to see the site of the new hospital. As well as the new hospital, staff and patients will also benefit from a new £87 million surgical centre which will open in summer 2025 and will replace the current hospital theatres and critical care unit. It will include six endoscopy rooms, patient recovery and clinical support areas, eight operating theatres and 22 critical care beds so patients can be supported through surgery and intensive care.
In total, 11 new hospitals will be built in the South West by 2030 and construction is in progress on the Bath Cancer Hospital, which is expected to be completed this year. The government recently confirmed for the first time that the New Hospital Programme is expected to be backed by over £20 billion of investment in new hospital infrastructure.
Health Minister Lord Markham said:
“We are investing in new NHS facilities across the country so patients can access high quality care in state-of-the-art hospitals, both now and in the years to come.
“The South West will benefit from 11 new hospitals by 2030 and this week I’ve been visiting some of the sites and speaking to patient, staff and local leaders across the region about the plans and progress. These will help to improve care and allow patients to be seen more quickly, which will help to cut waiting lists – one of the government’s top five priorities.
“In the long term, our new standardised design means we can rapidly replicate new hospitals across the country, helping to speed up construction and deliver on our commitment of 40 new hospitals by 2030.”
Across the region, staff shared their experiences and discussed how the new hospitals will support the transformation of healthcare in the South West by improving the patient experience with new, high-quality environments as well as improving clinical outcomes with modern, fit-for-purpose theatres, wards, and diagnostic facilities to help cut waiting lists.
Making use of the latest technology, the new hospitals will have digital solutions included at the design stage which will help to reduce staff workloads and support working from any location, whilst improving the patient experience. The hospitals will also have ‘smart buildings’, which will collect and process data to optimise energy usage and contribute to the NHS’s sustainability goals.
By developing a national approach to delivering new hospitals, known as Hospital 2.0, they can be built more quickly and at a reduced cost, providing value for taxpayers. Patients and staff will benefit from modern hospital design making use of the latest technology, digital innovation and sustainability to improve overall patient experience and provide a better working environment for staff. This will also put the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future, backed by increased staff with first ever NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which will deliver the biggest training expansion in NHS history and recruit and retain hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years, backed by over £2.4 billion in government funding.