'Get on with it!': Hurry-up call for NHS bosses to deliver a new Royal Preston Hospital

They issued the call after hearing a presentation from the man in charge of trying to secure the government cash needed for the project.

Jerry Hawker, the senior responsible officer for Lancashire and South Cumbria’s New Hospitals Programme, told a meeting of South Ribble Borough Council last month that the facility would not only improve the environment for patients, but boost the region's capacity for health research.

He also stressed that the future of Chorley and South Ribble Hospital was not being called into question under the plans for Preston.

It is almost two years since Lancashire was put on a list of 40 areas which the government said were in line for new or upgraded hospitals - fleshing out a Tory pledge that was first made in the run-up to the 2019 general election.

It was suggested that replacements would be built either for both the Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster Infirmary - or that a single, so-called ‘super hospital’ would be created to serve both Central and North Lancashire.

That prompted the NHS in the region to draw up a list of 10 possible permutations for how any government money would be spent, before the options were whittled down to just four back in March. The prospect of a single new hospital did not make the cut, with the remaining possibilities for the Royal Preston either being a partial rebuild on in its existing site or a new facility for the city springing up from scratch on another plot.

However, councillors lined up to complain that the process was taking too long. Labour council leader Paul Foster told the meeting that it was “blatantly obvious” that an entirely new hospital was needed - and said that some of the initial suggestions that formed the basis of public engagement last year had been “barking mad”.

“There’s only a very limited number of sites within Central Lancashire…where [a new hospital] could possibly go - and so we’d urge the NHS just to grasp the nettle and select the site. Because you need your site, so you can then start the detailed development of the designs.

“We need to perhaps stop talking amongst ourselves [and] make a firm decision on a new facility and go for it,” said Cllr Foster, adding that a hoped-for start date for construction work of 2025, for completion by 2030, might not be achievable the longer it took to finalise the plans.

Phil Smith, deputy leader of the Conservative opposition group, said that he had sat through many similar presentations to the one given by Mr. Hawker - but that they usually ended up with NHS bosses going away and changing their mind and “consult[ing] again next time on all the things you consulted on last time, [but had] wasted two or three years trying to get delivery of it”.

“Get your nose to the grindstone and move on with this, because it's for everybody’s benefit,” Cllr Smith added.

Jerry Hawker said in response to the comments that “the need for the investment in these hospitals is absolutely crucial, they are well beyond their service life and that starts to affect people’s care - despite the very best efforts of all of our staff”.

Whatever final preferred option is selected to pitch to the government, the cash needed to bring the blueprint to life will only be provided if the business case put forward to back it up is deemed strong enough. Mr. Hawker has previously told the Lancashire Post that there are no guarantees that Lancashire and South Cumbria will receive any money at all.

He was also quizzed at the South Ribble meeting about staffing levels for any new hospital and told councillors that good facilities “attract great staff and keep great staff” - and that the current state of the estate in Preston and Lancaster was one of the “main challenges” in persuading people to come and work at the existing hospitals.

Middleforth ward councillor Will Adams - himself an NHS nurse - said that a new hospital would need other “robust local services” to support it in order for it to be successful.

“The main aim here is for us to try and keep people away from hospital and at the moment…a lot of the patients who are being admitted through A&E are only [being so] because there aren't the local services available,” Cllr Adams said.

Mr. Hawker agreed with that assessment and said that the New Hospitals Programme was about trying to secure “the right-sized hospital providing the right care” - and added that there was a need to invest in “prevention measures [and] early diagnostics, because…a great hospital is one that’s treating the right people for their right conditions and that is only possible if we have investment in our wider community infrastructure”.

Separately, he told the meeting that the Royal Preston currently has the official capacity for only about 60 percent of the work that is coming through the doors of its urgent and emergency care services.

Meanwhile, the meeting heard that Chorley and South Ribble Hospital would continue to play a vital role in delivering healthcare in the region - whatever was ultimately decided about a new facility for Preston.

“The proposals we are bringing forward will see no hospitals close in Lancashire and South Cumbria as part of this programme. We will be replacing buildings and replacing facilities, but we will not be closing [them]. So Chorley Hospital will continue to be a major part of our future,” Mr. Hawker said.

The final list of options for new or rebuilt facilities in Preston and Lancaster is expected to be determined by the end of the year. The Post understands that any proposals for completely new hospitals built a significant distance from their current locations would constitute a major change to services and so require formal public consultation.

Partial rebuilds of existing facilities might not reach that threshold – but Jerry Hawker has previously stressed that public opinion will continue to be taken into account as part of the process, whichever path is ultimately chosen.