SOMERSET patients have been dealt a “bitter blow” after the government announced it was delaying upgrades to Musgrove Park Hospital for eight years.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) began a review of the new hospitals programme shortly after the general election in July 2024 – a programme which included improvements to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

The review concluded that the previous Conservative government’s commitment to deliver ’40 new hospitals’ by 2030 was “behind schedule, unfunded and therefore undeliverable” – forcing many of the projects to be postponed.

Health secretary Wes Streeting MP announced on Monday, January 20, that all 40 schemes would eventually be implemented, but the work would be done in phases, with Musgrove’s improvements not set to begin until 2033.

The news has been greeted with derision by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (which runs the hospital), which has branded the ruling “bitterly disappointing” for patients and staff alike.

Under the revised timetable for the delivery of new or improved hospitals, those where schemes are already under construction or with approved final business cases will continue as planned.

This includes improvements at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, St. Ann’s Hospital in Poole, the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and the Alumhurst Road Children’s Mental Health Unit (also in Bournemouth).

From there, the first wave of schemes (beginning construction between now and 2030) will focus on hospitals which were constructed using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – including Poole Hospital.

Musgrove Park Hospital’s improvements – including a new maternity unit – will form part of the second wave, meaning patients will have to wait until 2033 at the earliest.

Mr Streeting said: “The new hospital programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable.

“Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years, and there was no credible funding plan to build forty in the next five years.

“When I walked into the DHSC, I was told that the funding for the new hospital programme runs out in March [2025].

“We were determined to put the programme on a firm footing, so we can build the new hospitals our NHS needs.

“Today we are setting out an honest, funded, and deliverable programme to rebuild our NHS.”

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said the delay was a “bitter blow” to staff, patients and their families.

He said: “We estimate that our programme has been further delayed by at least another five years as a result of this review.

“We further estimate that the build will take approximately seven years, and the whole programme will not be complete before 2040.

“Development of our NHP programme will now pause until 2030/31 and construction will not begin until 2033/35.

“This is bitterly disappointing for the patients and families we care for, and for the colleagues who work in some buildings that are nearly 80 years old and not fit for a modern NHS.

“Parts of Musgrove Park Hospital were built in the 1940s. The roofs leak, the services infrastructure is woeful and needs significant upgrade, and we have concerns about our ability to keep those areas running and provide clinical services to vulnerable patients from them.”

The hospital’s maternity services have come in for particular scrutiny in the last 12 months, after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found the service to be “inadequate”.

Mr Lewis continued: “The CQC described the impact that our outdated maternity unit has on the privacy and dignity of the mothers, babies and families we care for.

“This delay is a bitter blow. Our new hospitals programme is planned to replace our outdated women’s (including maternity), children’s and elective surgical facilities, and to expand urgent and emergency care.

“We will now spend some time reviewing what this delay means, and how we manage the parts of our hospital that are not fit for purpose for approximately 15 years before we are able to complete the build programme.”

Taunton and Wellington MP Gideon Amos has slammed the “catalogue of delays” since Boris Johnson announced the new hospitals programme, and has called on the government to provide “urgent interim measures” to ensure Musgrove can operate safely until the upgrades can be begin.

He said: “This announcement makes it crystal clear that, despite what people were promised, there was never going to be a new hospital in Taunton because the last Conservative government never allocated any money.

“Care and the NHS was my number one priority at the general election so I’m glad Musgrove’s new maternity and paediatric unit is up in the second wave of proposed projects – that’s a promotion from the last government.

“Patients and residents will be bitterly disappointed, though, that the start date is no sooner than the 2030s – that’s far too late. Musgrove needs the new unit and needs it now.

“I’m calling for an urgent meeting with the Minister to establish the support which needs to be put in place, so that mums giving birth and everyone in the current maternity and paediatric buildings can continue to use them safely and with all essential maintenance being done rapidly in the next few months.”

The delay to the new hospital programme will not affect the ongoing delivery of Musgrove’s new surgical centre, which is scheduled to open by the early-summer.

This £87m centre, which began construction in July 2023, will include six endoscopy rooms, patient recovery and clinical support areas, eight operating theatres and 22 critical care beds.

The delay will also not affect the construction of the hospital’s new multi-storey car park, which secured planning permission in July 2024 and is currently under construction.