Hospital contingency plan needed - councillors

There needs to be a contingency plan in place in case there is a delay rebuilding a Surrey hospital with crumbling concrete, councillors have said.

Frimley Park Hospital, which was found to have Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Raac) in 2012, had been granted funding for a replacement building.

But the previous government’s pledge for new hospitals is being reviewed, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government had uncovered a £22bn hole in public finances.

Bosses at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust said they were “working closely” with partners to understand more about what the review might mean for them.

At a meeting on Friday, councillors on a committee overseeing Frimley Park Hospital said the trust should put together a contingency plan, in case the current building can no longer be used.

The chairman of the Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee, Trefor Hogg, said: "I'm concerned enough to be firmly stating to Frimley Health that they need to put together a contingency plan, so that if they don't get the decision they want, or if it doesn't happen as soon as they want, then services to the public will continue."

He told BBC Radio Surrey: “I think (the new hospital) absolutely has to happen.”

“But the problem is that decision may take longer than we would like, and I bear in mind that when Frimley Park Hospital was first built, the decision process was 11 years long. I’m hoping it’s a little bit quicker this time.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:

“The previous government’s commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 is undeliverable and unaffordable and this government is determined to be honest with people about what can be delivered.

“We must reset the New Hospital Programme to put it on a sustainable footing but no decisions have yet been made on the scale - but the Secretary of State has been clear hospitals with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) are the priority.”

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