Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has welcomed the announcement of a new Emergency Care Campus at Stepping Hill and an upgrade of Tameside Hospital Accident and Emergency, but notes that this is not new money.
Today it was announced that that Tameside and Glossop Integrated NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £16.3 million and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £30.6 million.
However, this funding is actually money that hospitals and other NHS trusts already have but were forbidden from spending.
Hospitals that cut their costs were rewarded with extra capital from something called the Provider Sustainability Fund, but ministers then blocked them from spending it.
In addition to this, it has been noted that current Health Secretary Matt Hancock has failed to deliver on previous promised upgrades and that the Government has cut £4.3 billion from NHS capital budgets.
Andrew Gwynne said:
“Of course I am pleased that more funding has been promised for hospitals in both Tameside and Stockport. This could see the quality of care for my constituents and others improve considerably.
“However, the Government has repeatedly promised upgrades similar to these and failed to deliver so I will be putting pressure on ministers in Westminster to ensure that they deliver on these spending commitments.
“It’s important also not to lose sight of the fact that this isn’t really new money and does very little to make up for the billions that the Government have taken out of our NHS.”