Government will fail to build 40 hospitals, says watchdog

The government will fail to meet its 2019 manifesto pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030. The National Audit Office estimated that funding cuts combined with planning and staffing problems meant only 32 of the 40 hospitals promised by former prime minister Boris Johnson could be completed by the 2030 deadline. It also warned that a Treasury decision to fund just £3.7bn of the £16bn requested by the Department of Health and Social Care for the first phase of the hospitals programme will lead to higher final costs.  This is despite the fact that the majority of the “new” hospitals in the programme are not new facilities but extensions, refurbishments or replacements of existing ones. The FT (£)The Guardian