Royal Berkshire Hospital Delays Show Why We Need Bold Action Now

The NHS’s backlog maintenance bill has now risen to over £15.9 billion, and it continues to tick up and up after every week of delay. Decades of chronic underinvestment have left crumbling buildings, operations taking place in portacabins, and staff doing all they can to provide high-quality 21^st century care in 19^th century buildings.

Close to home, our Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) is at the centre of this crisis, now facing a backlog of over £160 million as power cuts and leaking roofs have led to over fifty operations being cancelled in the past two years.  

However, in the Government’s updated report on the New Hospital Programme, the RBH has been placed in the third and final wave of building works, with a projected reconstruction finish of 2045. 

Out of 41 hospitals, this puts the RHS dead last, with an estimated cost of over £2 billion.

I recognise that the Government inherited an extremely challenging financial situation, Boris Johnson’s hollow promise to build the so-called “40 new hospitals” never materialised and has led to ballooning costs and a crisis on multiple fronts. Just last week, Louise Casey’s government-commissioned report stressed that the country faced a “moment of reckoning” over its failure to support the adult social care system, this will put further strain on our hospitals and make the delays at the RBH even harder to swallow.

So, while I continue to push ministers for interim capital funding, now is the time for bolder thinking and immediate action to reform the way care is delivered. Currently, the pace of change is missing.

Across Newbury, essential services such as the West Berkshire Community Hospital, Lambourn Pharmacy, and the West Berkshire Dementia Hub are working tirelessly to support our rural communities. Yet they are doing so while grappling with overstretched budgets, limited resources, and buildings that are long overdue for investment.

With 20% of the GP estate pre-dating the founding of the NHS in 1948, this is why the Liberal Democrats have been consistently calling for a shift from degrading corridor care to investing in neighbourhood diagnostic and dental services.

As the rebuild bill continues to rise, it is these very services that will ease the pressure on the overwhelmed Royal Berkshire Hospital while giving residents accessible, and dignified care closer to home.