Campaigners call for end to hospital build delays

A demonstration has been held against delays to the planned redevelopment of Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and concerns over the privatisation of the NHS.

Healthcare professionals and patients waved placards and chanted outside the hospital's Jubilee wing, calling on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to begin work on the delayed hospital project.

Organised by Keep Our NHS Public Leeds the demonstration came after it was announced a multimillion-pound building project at LGI had been delayed until at least 2032.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government was committed to "building an NHS fit for the future".

John Puntis, a retired consultant paediatrician who worked at LGI, said Keep Our NHS Public Leeds was calling on the government to invest in the NHS.

"The derelict site in the middle of the infirmary was earmarked in 2019 for a new hospital and we're highlighting the fact that hospital hasn't materialised and now doesn't look likely to materialise until distant future or indeed ever," he said.

"There is a serious crisis in acute care and we see this with the very long waits in A&E."

Joining the protest, Rhian said: "I'm here to ask: 'Where are our new hospitals?'

"We've been promised them for years and ours isn't even going to start being built until 2032."

Retired paediatrician Dr Shiela Puri said: "We don't know how great the NHS is. Every single person in this country can have healthcare free of cost. If you look at other countries, the US, Australia, Canada, France everyone has to pay for some amount of healthcare.

"Here we have free healthcare and we should protect it.

"We should be fighting to keep the NHS public and not diverting money to the private sector."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government had inherited a broken NHS with "demoralised staff, huge waiting lists, crumbling hospitals and an unfunded, undeliverable rebuilding programme".

They added: "Through our Plan for Change and the £26 billion investment announced at the Budget, this government is turning things around and building an NHS fit for the future.

"We've put the New Hospital Programme on a sustainable footing, ended junior doctors strikes and set the NHS ambitious but deliverable targets so that patients can be seen on time again."

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