Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
First Report - The New Hospital Programme
Public Accounts Committee
HC 77
Published 17 November 2023
Conclusions (5)
4
Conclusion
Rejected
DHSC must quickly complete and test its standardised hospital design to avert further delays to hospital construction, and to reduce the current high risk of cost and quality issues in years to come. DHSC has taken too long to get its Hospital 2.0 design off the drawing board. It continues …
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the recommendation to start construction of a standardised hospital design scheme in 2024, stating that starting construction without sufficient design maturity risks increased time and cost.
11
Conclusion
Rejected
DHSC aims to improve the cost-effectiveness and quality of new hospitals by standardising hospital design, including the business case process, and making increased use of modern methods of construction.19 Many traditional hospital construction schemes suffered from cost overruns and delays, which the NHP team believes it can reduce through a …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the committee's implicit recommendation, reaffirming its commitment to test Hospital 2.0, its standardised approach, starting with RAAC schemes, while undertaking deep dive reviews and developing prototyping facilities from late 2024.
12
Conclusion
Rejected
In practice, these future time and cost savings also need to be set against the time and cost taken to develop the new approach and additional costs as a result of inflation while schemes wait to proceed. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority recommended that the NHP team should complete its …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the committee's implicit recommendation regarding delays, stating it will test Hospital 2.0 with RAAC schemes, acknowledging construction is unlikely to start in 2024 but highlighting ongoing design and prototyping work for late 2024.
14
Conclusion
Rejected
More generally, we asked DHSC whether it should commit to first building one hospital according to Hospital 2.0 designs in order to discover its viability in practice, the true scope for cost and time savings, and problems and snags that could be removed, before the design is repeated across multiple …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation for a single pilot hospital, stating it will test Hospital 2.0 within RAAC schemes and further develop designs through established prototyping facilities from late 2024, prior to construction.
15
Conclusion
Rejected
Before the evidence session, we visited a “super hospital” project in Denmark. The Danes had built a prototype of a new operating theatre on the edge of an existing hospital and each surgical team was given access to it so they could test how it worked in practice. Using the …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation for similar live clinical exercises, stating it will test Hospital 2.0 within RAAC schemes and use prototyping facilities from late 2024 to engage clinicians and manufacturers in improving designs and aiding training.