Huge £37m funding boost for NHS hospitals and sites in Greater Manchester
'Patients and staff deserve to be in buildings that are safe, comfortable and fit for purpose'
A Greater Manchester hospital has been awarded £2.6 million for much-needed rebuilding work and to improve its fixtures and fittings. The sum is part of a package of Government funding worth a total of £37m to the NHS across Greater Manchester, it was revealed on Friday.
Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport - long dogged by problems with aging buildings and infrastructure - will get the sum for a range of new projects. They're said to include work on the hospital's water, energy, heating and electrical systems. Lift upgrades or replacements and fire safety works are also set to benefit.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) - which runs major hospitals in Salford, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham - has been awarded £10.7m.
And the trust managing the aging North Manchester General Hospital - which is set for a billion pound rebuild - will get £6.8m, shared between three hospital sites including North Manchester.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the House of Commons that the crumbling Crumpsall estate - home to North Manchester General - would be awarded between 1bn to £1.5bn in funding after its long-awaited transformation was given the green light in January this year.
The Manchester Evening News reported in April the funding being formally approved by the Government, giving 'financial certainty' to plans for a new state-of-the-art facility.
The funding boost will be welcomed at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust. Over the course of four months last year, Stepping Hill saw one of its major outpatient buildings condemned – followed by two 'unexpected and unrelated' ceilings collapsing in its radiology department and its critical care unit. A new-look A&E department there, however, was finally unveiled earlier this month after a project worth £34m.
Hospital bosses at Stepping Hill and the council, however, have said the hospital will need far more than that for urgent repairs crucially needed.
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Stepping Hill Hospital did not qualify for a scheme to rebuild ageing hospitals which was left by the Conservatives, and then taken over last year when Labour came into power. It was announced the new Government would be carrying out a spending review on the ‘New Hospitals Programme’, before revealing a series of dates and funding figures for each of the hospitals chosen.
North Manchester General Hospital made the list during the selection process by Tory leaders in previous years, but Stockport MPs say Stepping Hill was being neglected.
The Government today set out funding allocations for building repairs.
Around £1.2 billion, part of funding packages announced in last year's autumn budget, will be spent on repairing crumbling hospitals - and schools - across the country, the Government confirmed. More than 400 hospitals, mental health units and ambulance sites will be handed £750m to tackle problems such as leaky pipes, poor ventilation and electrical issues.
Here's the funding breakdown for Greater Manchester and what the money is for.
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust - £4.7m. Royal Bolton Hospital - Improvements to energy systems and ventilation systems.
- Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust - £6.3m. Atherleigh Park Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital, Trafford General Hospital, Prestwich Hospital, Wythenshawe, Royal Bolton Hospital - Improvements to electrical systems, security systems and internal building fabric and fixtures. Lift upgrades or replacements. Anti-ligature works. Fire safety works. Drainage works.
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust - £6.8m. North Manchester General Hospital, Oxford Road Campus, Wythenshawe Hospital - Improvements to energy systems, electrical systems and ventilation systems. Fire safety works. Lift upgrade or replacement.
- Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust - £10.7m. Fairfield General Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary, Salford Royal, Royal Oldham Hospital - Improvements to electrical systems, water systems, energy systems and ventilation systems. Fire safety works. Drainage works. Asbestos works. Roof works.
- Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust - £1.4m. Birch Hill Hospital, Buckton Building, Fairfield General Hospital - Improvements to electrical systems, energy systems, water systems, and fixed and/or plant equipment. Anti-ligature works.
- Stockport NHS Foundation Trust - £2.6m. Stepping Hill Hospital - Improvements to internal building fabric and fixtures, water systems, energy systems, heating systems, electrical systems. Lift upgrade or replacement. Fire safety works.
- Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust - £1.6m. Tameside General Hospital - Improvements to electrical systems. Fire safety works.
- Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust - £2.7m. Leigh Infirmary, Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wrightington Hospital - Improvements to building management systems, energy systems, heating systems, water systems, and external building fabric. Fire safety work. Roof works. Lift upgrades or replacements.
Projects to deliver the improvements to hospital buildings will be delivered during the 2025/26 financial year, with the first upgrades to begin this summer, the Government said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "A decade and a half of underinvestment left hospitals crumbling, with burst pipes flooding emergency departments, faulty electrical systems shutting down operating theatres, and mothers giving birth in outdated facilities that lack basic dignity. We are on a mission to rebuild our NHS through investment and modernisation.
"Patients and staff deserve to be in buildings that are safe, comfortable and fit for purpose. Through our Plan for Change, we will make our NHS fit for the future.”
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) in January estimated it would cost around £13.8 billion to address the repairs and remedial work backlog for hospitals and other NHS properties in England.