Cornwall Hospital Allocates Contingency Funds to Maintain Stalled Construction Project

A hospital in Cornwall has announced it is utilizing its contingency budget to ensure the continued progress of a project to construct a new Women and Children’s Hospital. The proposed facility was projected to cost £291m and was scheduled for completion by 2028, forming part of the New Hospital Programme unveiled by the Conservative government in 2019. The initiative at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) in Truro is one of 25 planned new hospitals that have been put on hold following an announcement by Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Mr. Streeting had previously stated that the hospital building programme had become “undeliverable” and “unaffordable.” The project was intended to integrate maternity, neonatal, paediatric, obstetrics, and gynaecology services into a single building. Roberta Fuller, the programme director of the Women and Children’s Hospital at RCHT, remarked: “This building is being held together with metal bands. We are doing another structural survey to show how desperate the condition of this building is. It should have been end of life four or five years ago.” The RCHT has invested £15m in the project, which commenced in 2020. The cancer ward has been relocated, and there are plans to move the cardiac outpatients and haematology laboratory and clinics to clear the area for the construction. The trust confirmed it began drawing funds from its contingency budget in November 2024. The designs for the new hospital include six new operating theatres and provision for 120 bed or cot spaces. While completion was anticipated in 2028, the duration of any delay remains uncertain, as the review is expected to report back in January. Tom Smith Walker, an obstetrician gynaecologist at the RCHT, reassured patients that there are no safety concerns and that the hospital provides a very high standard of care. He commented: “We make the very best out of the rooms and the theatre facilities that we have in order to facilitate our care. But obviously we would like this to be significantly better.” A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care stated: “We are committed to delivering the New Hospital Programme. The programme we inherited was years behind schedule and the funding ran out in March. We are working up a timeline that is fully-costed, honest, and will rebuild our NHS so it can deliver the best possible care for patients.”