Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster pushed to the back of the new hospital queue

PLUS: Tributes to human rights expert who died near Lancaster University

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

This week we focus on the news that - despite public consultation being on the cusp of beginning - Preston and Lancaster’s new hospital projects have been shunted back to the end of the next decade.

While not a huge surprise, it is still disappointing that those plans have shifted so far back. Given at least two general elections will take place between now and then, it feels highly unlikely that anyone in government today will ever have to follow through on those new dates.

We’ve examined the criteria by which Preston and Lancaster were moved to the back of the queue and there’s one clear conclusion: if these sites are low priority, the other ones must be in a catastrophic state.

We also look at the death of a human rights expert close to Lancaster University, confirmed by police this week, and the impact she made. Our thoughts go out to her family.

Preston and Lancaster new hospitals being lower priority shows extent of damage to crumbling NHS

By Luke Beardsworth, with additional reporting by Jamie Lopez and Paul Faulkner

Royal Preston Hospital

Safety, cost and the current level of care being delivered were all criteria by which Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster were considered before planned new builds were shunted to the back of the queue.

The government announced earlier this week that construction on new hospitals to replace Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster would not begin until 2037 and 2035 respectively at the very earliest.

This came after a Labour government review of the New Hospital Programme, announced under the Conservative administration, which concluded that the project as a whole was not sustainable from a financial perspective.

The news that, as the government said, Labour believed they had been handed a programme that was ‘unfunded’ beyond 2025 came as little surprise. It was well before the 2024 general election that it became clear that the Conservatives would not be returning to power and that was often reflected in how they governed.

But that did little to alleviate public frustration, particularly in Central Lancashire where a heated debate was well-underway about mooted plans to move Royal Preston hospital to Farington.

A major engagement exercise to assess the public’s thoughts on the move, which included plans to move Royal Lancaster to Bailrigg East, has now been scrapped before it had the chance to really begin.

The amount of money spent planning the exercise has not yet made it into the public domain.

The hospitals in wave one include North Manchester General Hospital and West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, with the latter requiring the work due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). These are expected to cost between £1bn and £1.5bn. All seven hospitals constructed primarily using RAAC will be prioritised and begin work before 2030.

RAAC was found inside both Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Royal Blackburn Hospital- neither of which was included in the New Hospitals Programme. In Blackpool, a laundry facility was demolished and work was undertaken to replace an affected roof. In Blackburn, the majority of any RAAC present was safely removed.

Neither Royal Preston nor Royal Lancaster were considered to be safety concerns in that context which means they were not prioritised.

That factor was combined with cost - the new Royal Preston site is estimated to cost over £2bn and Royal Lancaster between £1bn and £1.5bn - before the sites were pushed back.

It shines a light on the present state of the NHS - described by Health Secretary Wes Streeting this week as ‘literally crumbing - that Preston and Lancaster were not deemed to be priorities despite maintenance backlogs of £157m and £88m respectively.

Watford General Hospital is a high-cost project - more expensive than Royal Lancaster - that will begin work three years before under current plans.

But the maintenance backlog for Watford General Hospital sits at £63.4m - less than at both sites in Lancashire.

One metric by which the projects were assessed was deliverability - and it’s worth noting that in Watford they have built a multi-storey car park, put in an overall planning application which has been approved, and built an access road.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond to specific questions asked by The Lancashire Lead regarding the prioritisation process, or indeed provide a statement, but instead pointed us towards Monday’s announcement.

“Disappointing - but it brings certainty”

The reaction from hospital bosses in Lancashire suggests that, while everyone wants the new facilities in place as soon as possible, the news of the delays did not come as a huge surprise.

Professor Silas Nicholls, chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – which runs the Royal Preston – said: “Although people will be understandably disappointed about the delayed plans for a new Royal Preston Hospital, we welcome the government’s commitment to delivering the hospital albeit over a more sustainable timeframe.

“We will continue to work closely with all our partners and stakeholders to ensure that the need for new facilities remains high on everybody’s agenda so that our communities can continue to access high quality and specialist care in an environment that truly suits their needs.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Cummins, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust – operator of the Royal Lancaster – added: “Any delay to the delivery of a replacement new hospital for the Royal Lancaster Infirmary is disappointing, but we accept the need for a fully costed and deliverable timeline of investment through the New Hospital Programme.

“Whilst this may not be the news local communities wanted, we hope that the outcome brings some certainty that patients and NHS colleagues will get the new hospital that they deserve. Getting feedback from patients, NHS staff and the public will be just as important in that process – and we will be asking for everyone’s views on our proposals again at an appropriate time.”

New hospital facilities for Central and North Lancashire were first promised by the then Boris Johnson government in October 2020 – with the possibility of either new buildings for both Preston and Lancaster or a single one serving the two areas.

Two years later, the NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria opted to bid for funding for new hospitals in both cities. The region was told by the Rishi Sunak government in the summer of 2023 that it had been successful – but that building work would not begin on the projects until the turn of the 2030s.

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“She devoted her life and professional career to human rights, and improving the lives of others across the world…”

Alison Graham

Police this week confirmed the death of a human rights expert in a crash close to Lancaster University.

Officers were called to a collision between a Dacia Sandero car and a pedestrian on the A6 close to the junction with Sir John Fisher Drive.

That pedestrian was Alison Graham who suffered serious injuries and later died in hospital. Police are investigating the incident, which they described as ‘tragic’.

Alison was a human rights and development expert who provided analysis and policy recommendations on issues such as inequality, social exclusion and poverty.

She has worked with the Global Initiative on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Lancaster University examining themes such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on economic and social rights, and the role of the state in battling national debt and social security.

In a tribute, Alison’s family said: “At the end of last week, our hearts were broken by the sudden loss of Alison in a tragic traffic accident. Ali was a much-loved sister, daughter, niece and cousin, and a great friend to many.

“Alison accomplished so much in her life, and was someone who always gave so much to others. She was smart, kind and funny, with a sparkling personality and a great sense of humour. She devoted her life and professional career to human rights, and improving the lives of others across the world. Everything she did was with intelligence, passion and heart.

“She will be enormously missed by her family and friends, and by all those who knew and loved her. She leaves a great hole in all of our lives.

“We would appreciate privacy as we grieve the loss of this very special person.”

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Thank you for reading The Lancashire Lead. There’s more analysis on the delays to the New Hospitals Programme specifically in Lancashire for paid subscribers below.

We’ll speak to you again soon.

Labour justification over hospital delays may struggle to cut through at next general election

Analysis by Luke Beardsworth

For all the conversation about Farage, the rise of the far-right and whatever other conversations litter public debate over the next four years - Labour will be judged on whether things have got better during five years in government.

Nobody expected Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary to be open by 2029 - it wasn’t the plan.

But Labour was elected on a promise to sort out the NHS and it will be a challenge to cut through on messaging that, locally, it will be fixed later than previously expected.