'Yes or no – will you fully fund North Manchester General Hospital's rebuild plans as promised?'

A Manchester health minister has refused to say whether North Manchester General Hospital will get the full money it was promised for its desperately-needed rebuild plans. However, the health minister said Stepping Hill Hospital – another crumbling NHS estate – will NOT miss out on funding just because the Labour cabinet is scrambling to find money the ‘40 new hospitals’ promised by previous Conservative governments.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, this week, took to the radio to say North Manchester General Hospital has some of the oldest wards in the NHS. But Department of Health and Social Care minister Andrew Gwynne, the MP for Gorton and Denton, would not say whether the Victorian-era hospital would receive the millions it was promised for crucial refurbishments by Boris Johnson in 2019.

The Crumpsall site became one of the ‘40 new hospitals’ pledged by the Conservative government for years. But despite well-documented dilapidation, including operating theatres closing for weeks at a time because of ceiling collapses, transformational plans that are ready to go have now been put under review by the Labour government.

READ MORE: Wes Streeting promises new hospital plans like North Manchester General will go ahead

All projects within the programme promised by the previous Conservative administration are undergoing a spending review, with 25 schemes at risk of being delayed or cancelled, the government announced back in July. One of those projects is North Manchester General Hospital.

All the planning that has already been completed and the millions spent on enabling works in Crumpsall will shave off around 18 months of the time that is needed to rebuild a hospital, it is understood. The catchment area for the hospital also suffers some of the worst health outcomes in the country, with life expectancy years lower than other parts of England.

But the crumbling Victorian-era buildings have still not received the go-ahead after more than five years of government promises. On Friday, the Manchester Evening News sat down with health minister Andrew Gwynne and asked whether North Manchester General Hospital would get its full transformation plan approved so the rebuild can start in 2025, as has been long-planned.

'Everything is there but the cash'

Mr Gwynne’s visit to Manchester on Friday came ahead of the launch of a government initiative to ask the public on how NHS services services should be changed as the Labour leadership creates a 10-year plan to transform health and social care across the UK. Investment for battered hospitals like North Manchester General Stepping Hill should be part of that consultation, says the MP.

“There will be real change,” Mr Gwynne said. “We recognize in the 10-year plan that there will have to be capital spending on hospital building. And the hospital program that we are reviewing at this moment in time, we are committed to fulfilling.

“But the thing that's missing is the funding. The last government made promises they knew they couldn't keep, and what has shocked us as ministers coming into the Department of Health and Social Care is that there is this hospital rebuilding program that wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

“Because the paper that we ultimately need – the cash – wasn't there. So what we are doing is reviewing how we are able to deliver, over the course of the NHS plan, the hospital rebuilding that needs to take place.

“And, of course, condition will be a key part of that. So I am very aware of the issues at North Manchester, I am very aware as the former Stockport Member of Parliament of the issues at Stepping Hill. The department is aware of those issues.

“What we need to do is to ensure that those plans that we want to see done and carried out are fully funded, and that's the piece of work that is taking place at the moment. We will make sure that there is a hospital building program in the 10-year NHS plan.

“But we will make sure that the hard cash to pay for it is there as well, which scandalously the last Conservative government didn't put in place.”

'Yes or no – is the government going to fully fund North Manchester General Hospital's plans as promised?'

Yet, when asked ‘yes or no’ on whether North Manchester General Hospital will be fully-funded, according to the multi-million pound plans that have long been drawn up, the minister refused to confirm.

“Well, there's no point having a review and then me circumnavigating that process,” he said. “Those hospitals are well known to the department and the whole of the hospital rebuilding program is currently being reviewed.

“We are looking at how we can bring forward those hospitals for rebuilding in a timely fashion over the course of the NHS plan period, and how we can get the investment into those hospitals that desperately need it – hospitals that are falling to pieces in some cases – and [how] we can ensure that those people who need those hospitals have the buildings that are fit for purpose.

“We will do that in the course of the review and we will make sure that where we make promises, the money is there to be able to meet those promises. I think it's disgraceful that the last government made promises they knew they didn't have the money to fund.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting apologised for yet another delay to North Manchester General's rebuild in September, and pledged it would go ahead eventually. Those overtures were repeated in the House of Commons last week.

But just before, the government u-turned on funding to repair another decrepit Greater Manchester hospital – Stepping Hill.

The government caused fury saying it 'cannot commit' to funding repairs at Stepping Hill. Hospital bosses said the bill had reached £130m and ministers had promised investment to fix the decaying estate in the months prior.

'Stepping Hill is in a dreadful condition', admits health minister

Over the course of just four months this year, the Stockport hospital has seen one of its major outpatient buildings condemned and demolished, followed by two 'unexpected and unrelated' ceilings collapsing in its radiology department and its critical care unit. Those incidents have led to a serious dip in the capacity for outpatient appointments and the hospital's intensive care department being out of action for days.

Despite all that, in a letter sent this week, minister of state for health Karin Smyth said funding for the hospital is not available 'at this stage' due to the state of public finances, which chancellor Rachel Reeves has said amounts to a £22bn black hole.

Shocking images surfaced in June just before Labour achieved a landslide general election result. They showed the seriousness of the problem - a flooded corridor and an intensive care unit in disarray after a ceiling collapsed.

The collapses happened inside the radiology department and the critical care unit. Seriously ill patients receive intensive and high-dependency treatments in the wards, while dozens had their scheduled procedures and appointments cancelled. Evacuated patients were at first cared for in operating theatres but some were then transferred to a nearby hospital.

Yet only months after the election, Ms Smyth's letter to the area’s MPs said that the government would have to 'monitor any emerging in-year flexibilities or opportunities' to find funding for the site, and that she will arrange a visit to the hospital.

The letter has been met with disgust. Stepping Hill, which is supposed to specialise in stroke care, alongside emergency and high risk surgery for millions across the region, has been crying out for funding for years. The M.E.N. understands hospital chiefs pitched Stepping Hill to be one of the '40 new hospitals' promised by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson back in 2019, but was rejected.

But Mr Gwynne, a former Stockport MP before taking up his seat in Gorton and Denton, told the M.E.N. that the money needed to fund the new hospitals promised by the Conservative leadership will not preclude Stepping Hill from receiving much-needed cash.

“That’s not the case [that Stepping Hill won’t be funded because the government needs to pay for the new hospitals],” said Mr Gwynne. “We are aware that, obviously, there are promises that have been made in terms of the hospital rebuilding program.

“But there are capital challenges across a number of hospitals in England, not just here in Greater Manchester, where there needs to be investment and that is part of what will be in the 10-year plan and that's partly why we need to have this conversation because it is about the priorities – what will should the priorities be?

“A hospital rebuilding program and ensuring that there's capital investment in the NHS estate has to be part of that plan for the next decade. Obviously we've got the challenge of hospitals that haven't had a penny spent on them for a decade or more that are now in the process of falling down as you say – Stepping Hill is in a dreadful condition. The department is aware of that.

“It is a priority that we look into how we help those hospitals, so that the people of those areas, in this case Stepping Hill or North Manchester, have the right to have the best hospital facilities that we can provide them in the NHS.”

Labour launching 'conversation about our NHS plan'

On the announcement coming today (Monday, October 21), Mr Gwynne said: “On Monday, the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary are going to be launching a huge conversation across the nation about our 10-year NHS plan. This is about ensuring that we build that NHS that is fit for the future, with the people who use the NHS and the people who work for the NHS at the heart of everything we do.

“There will be lots of engagement opportunities across the country to take on board the best ideas that people have about how we remodel health and care for the 21st century. Monday will be the start of that process, we’ll be launching the online consultation tool, which will be change.nhs.uk.

“That’s about ensuring everybody who has got an idea, who wants to have their say on the changes ahead, have the opportunity to do so.

“Digital exclusion is something that we are rightly concerned about. There will be lots of opportunities for people who aren’t able to access the tool online to be able to contribute. There will be in-person events across the country. We anticipate over 100 events across England.

“But also, there will be opportunities to participate by sending their thoughts in, in writing. So this is going to be a genuinely constructive and inclusive exercise to bring on board all the ideas that people have about the changes they want to see in this decade of national renewal, and a decade of improving our NHS and building a health and care system fit for the future.”