Leeds pushes government for hospital funding
With the Labour regime’s first Budget fast approaching, the city council is to call for the acceleration of the spending required for a new hospital.
LCC believes that delays to the redevelopment of the Leeds General Infirmary site on Great George Street have already added £300m to the overall cost.
A meeting of the council’s executive board next week will see a report from interim chief executive Mariana Pexton with a series of recommendations.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s redevelopment plans for the LGI site were first revealed, with designs by BDP, in summer 2021, at which point the 990,000 sq ft project was estimated at £450m.
The project includes a new adult hospital, a new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital and the UK’s largest single-site maternity facility.
The fourth and main recommendation in the report for LCC’s executive states that “The Executive Board requests that, given the Treasury review of the new hospitals programme, officers make a submission to the Treasury clearly stating the importance of modernised hospital provision in Leeds.”
Leader James Lewis and Cllr Fiona Venner, executive member for equality, health and wellbeing, have sought cross-party support for a letter in support of the council’s submission.
Cllr Venner said this week: “The new hospital will boost the health of children and adults in this city as well as regenerating the existing and surrounding site. and promoting innovation and research across Leeds. It will play a vital part in tackling health inequalities and improving health outcomes for people in Leeds and the region.
“Along with all our partners, the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System and the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, we confirm our unwavering support for the plans and call on the Government to approve and accelerate the programme.”
LTH NHS Trust is also looking to advance a wider 2.2m sq ft Innovation Village, with Scarborough Group appointed this year as pfreferred developer for a medtech hub at the Old Medical School.
In May 2023, then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay stated in Parliament that Leeds was in the locations at the top of the list for the Conservatives’ new hospitals programme, confirming the Great George Street site as one of five sites nationwide to be tackled with priority.
This was due in part to the limited life-span of the concrete systems used in the original construction of some of its buildings.
Thinking in Leeds is that significant investment is required to operationally maintain the existing, aging estate. There is, said the council, an increasing risk to regional clinical service delivery due to the estate’s condition.
There is a particular danger that the trust might not be able to meet requirements in specialist areas, notably maternity and neo-natal.
LCC reiterates that LTH NHS Trust has developed a full and comprehensive outline business case, approved by the Department of Health & Social Care as far back as 2020.
This business case was further refreshed in 2022 but now continues to remain on hold despite the Trust’s proposals having been assessed as robust, value for money and meeting clinical need. Alternative proposals have been considered, LCC said, with none offering the same value for money and cost-effectiveness.
