Winners for construction framework set to be appointed next month
The National Audit Office has said the New Hospital Programme needs to adopt a series of initiatives to avoid busting budgets and deadlines.
In all, 16 firms were shortlisted last summer to compete for places on the £37bn framework to deliver hospital schemes across England between now and 2040.
The framework will be used by NHS trusts to appoint so-called Alliance Partners responsible for the design, construction and handover of individual hospital projects.
It is understood the final number of firms appointed to the framework will be 11 with winners, which had been expected at the end of last year, now set for next month.
Those bidding for the work include Kier, Morgan Sindall, Multiplex and Laing O’Rourke.
In a report on the plans, the NAO said the government needed to “maintain rigorous programme oversight to keep delivery on track, learn lessons between schemes and respond to changes in healthcare needs”.
And it added: “Get the Hospital 2.0 design right by allowing enough time for testing and ensuring strong input from trust staff and leaders. Strengthen long‑term cost estimates and align delivery and funding profiles.
“Share the future demand model widely across the NHS and government, ensuring consistent local decision‑making and continuous model refinement.”
Last January, the government published a new timetable to deliver the NHP with some projects now pushed back beyond 2037.
At the time, health secretary Wes Streeting described the new timetable as “honest, realistic [and] deliverable” in contrast to former prime minister Boris Johnson’s original pledge to build 40 hospitals by 2030 which Streeting said was built on the “shaky foundation of false hope”.
Under the plan, which will see 46 hospitals built or refurbished, projects will be delivered and funded in five-year “waves”, with £15bn allocated for each wave.
In its report, out today, the NAO said: “The reset of the New Hospital Programme has put it on a more realistic timetable but with replacement schemes for hospitals built with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete now expected in 2032–33, and a tight construction schedule overall with little contingency in the next five years, there are significant delivery risks.”
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