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Starmer will 'ensure' new hospital is built

Chris McHugh
BBC News
BBC Alex Brewer MP is standing up in the House of Commons to ask the question. She has short grey hair brushed to the side, dark-rimmed glasses, and is wearing a black blazer with a red top underneath. She is holding some documents and is surrounded by her MP colleagues.BBC
Alex Brewer MP said half her constituency used Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, which she described as experiencing "worsening conditions".

The prime minister has promised that a new hospital for Basingstoke will be "funded and deliverable" after an MP said her constituents were becoming "frustrated".

Lib Dem MP for North East Hampshire, Alex Brewer, said the costs of maintaining the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital in the years before its rebuild would be "as much as the rebuild itself".

Construction on a new hospital in Basingstoke is not expected to begin until between 2037 and 2039, following a government review.

Sir Keir Starmer said the previous Conservative plan was unfunded, and that his government's plan would see the hospital built.

Google A view of the front entrance to Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital. Cars are parked directly in front of the front automatic doors, and the building is a faded cream colour.Google
Construction on a new hospital in Basingstoke is not expected to begin until between 2037 and 2039

Raising the issue during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Brewer said there had been "no ministerial visit to see the worsening conditions at the the hospital".

She said: "The cost of maintaining the hospital for... 15 years is estimated to be almost as much as the rebuild itself.

"So can the prime minister explain the logic of making taxpayers pay twice?"

'Funded and deliverable'

In response, Starmer said the previous Conservative government was to blame for the delays, and that her constituents were "right to be frustrated".

"Under the previous government's plan, a new hospital in Basingstoke would simply not have been delivered because it was unfunded. It was a promise without anything behind it" he said.

"We've put in place a funded, deliverable plan which will see the hospital built and we'll work closely with the [Hampshire Hospitals] trust to ensure that it is".

The new hospital serving north and mid Hampshire would cost between £700m and £900m and be funded by the government's New Hospital Building programme.

It would be built either on the site of the current Basingstoke hospital or at a new site at Dummer, off the M3's Junction 7.

The plan is part of Labour's revamped version of the previous government's commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030, announced by health secretary Wes Streeting last month.

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