Derriford Hospital to get new A&E by 2030 insists Wes Streeting

The Health Secretary has confirmed a number of hospital building programmes in the South West will go ahead - including Derriford's Emergency Care Hospital.

Concerns were raised last year that the Conservative's New Hospital Programme was in jeopardy after Labour won the General Election.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the programme – promised by the Tories in their 2019 election manifesto – was "undeliverable and unaffordable" and it led to Labour reviewing the entire New Hospital Programme, which raised fears Derriford Hospital's new A&E building programme was in doubt.

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The Government said 20 schemes would be able to proceed and would not be part of the review - but all options would be looked at for the remaining 25.

Derriford Hospital was among a number of hospitals across the country which fell into the list, along with Torbay Hospital and the new Women and Children's Hospital at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

Mr Streeting visited Derriford earlier this month where he said he pledged his commitment to "finding a solution" to the struggles Derriford Hospital was facing.

Today [January 20] he told the Commons that he was shocked coming into office, saying the money for the building programmes was "not there", adding that the "NHS is quite literally crumbling" as he cited leaking pipes and falling roofs.

He said Labour now will put the programme on a firm footing with "sustainable funding, so all the projects can be delivered". He also told the Commons the Government would “give patients an honest, realistic, deliverable timetable that they can believe in”.

Highlighting a series of waves of building he revealed that the Women and Children's Hospital in Cornwall and Derriford Emergency Care Hospital will fall into wave one, which will begin construction "between 2025 and 2030.

Wave two schemes "will now begin main construction between 2030 and 2035" and include Torbay Hospital

Wave three schemes 2035 and 2039 includes North Devon District Hospital

Mr Streeting said: "Working closely with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones), we have secured five-year waves of investment backed by £15 billion of investment over consecutive waves averaging £3 billion a year.

"This funding is in addition to the £1 billion the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) announced at the budget to tackle dangerous RAAC and the backlog of critical maintenance, repairs and upgrades across the NHS estate, and it is in addition to the £1.5 billion we are investing in new surgical hubs, diagnostic scanners and beds."

Speaking on Twitter/X from outside Derriford Hospital, Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas said: "I am so pleased to say that after campaigning for years on this before I was elected as an MP, today, the Labour Government have confirmed that we will be building here, a new A&E at Derriford.

"This is fantastic news, and I'm so glad - it's such a win for our city and for us. I attended a night shift here with staff just before Christmas. Since then, I invited Wes Streeting and his team down. I've written to him several times. I've had meetings with him in Parliament, and today he's announced it's going ahead.

"This is a fantastic win, especially after years of empty promises from Boris Johnson and his Conservative MPs, including the former Tory MP here. They told us, year after year after year, yeah, you're getting a new A&E, a 'new hospital'. It didn't happen - the money wasn't there.

"We've come into Government and I'm so pleased to say that after a really active campaign from myself and the local Labour group here, we've got it. It's a great day. We should all be really proud."

A spokesperson for University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said: "University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is delighted that following the government announcement of the New Hospital Programme review outcome, the new Emergency Care Building at Derriford Hospital can now proceed at pace.

"The new state-of-the-art facility will replace the Trust’s current Emergency Department, which is not fit for purpose, by creating space to care in a modern healthcare environment that our community has long required.

"Plans for an improved Emergency Care Building for the south west peninsula’s major trauma centre have been in the pipeline for several years with a huge amount of hard work and dedication from everyone involved, as well as strong support from the local community, including cross party support from local MPs."

Luke Pollard MP, Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: "This is excellent news for Plymouth. I have fought tooth and nail for a new emergency department at Derriford since I was elected.

"The Conservatives left the future of Derriford up in the air. Unforgivably, they promised us an emergency department without setting aside the money to build it.

"On behalf of staff and patients, I am delighted that we are in wave one of the government’s hospital programme and have the green light to get on with construction."

In a statement regarding Derriford Hospital, Wes Streeting, Labour’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said: "Since the election, Fred Thomas and Luke Pollard have been banging the drum day and night for Derriford.

"The New Hospital Programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable. Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years, and there was no credible plan to build forty in the next five years.

"When I walked into the Department of Health and Social Care, I was told that the funding for the New Hospitals Programme runs out in March. We were determined to put the programme on a firm footing, so we can build the new hospitals our NHS needs.

"Today we are setting out an honest, funded, and deliverable programme to rebuild our NHS. I am committed to delivering a new Emergency Department at Derriford and to rebuilding our NHS."