Residents in south west London and Surrey are set to benefit from a new NHS hospital after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock gave the green light on a new site at Epsom and St Helier.
Part of the Government’s £3.7bn commitment to building 40 new hospitals by 2030, the new site in Sutton would provide the region with a state-of-the-art facility for much of its healthcare needs, with some district health services remaining in modernised buildings at the existing Epsom and St Helier site.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This new hospital will be transformational for patients and staff at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust and the wider community.
“I look forward to seeing the hospital take shape over the coming months and years, and hope that the public will be as involved as possible in shaping the new services.
“This new hospital is one of 40 we are building up and down the country by 2030, as part of our £3.7 billion hospital building programme.”
Following public consultation in the spring, the decision to build the new hospital in Sutton was referred to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel last month, who were tasked with considering whether the proposals were in the interest of local health services and would improve local health outcomes.
The panel ruled that it could not find any reason to disagree with the choice of Sutton as the site for the new hospital, concluding that the proposals should proceed.
Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive, Epsom and St Helier University Hospital Trust, added: “We welcome the advice from the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, and are delighted that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has agreed that we should proceed with investing £500m in a new hospital at Sutton, and in Epsom and St Helier hospitals.
“We are now proceeding at full speed to design the new hospitals and will soon be engaging with our local communities on the new hospital facilities.
“All being well we aim to have builders on site in Sutton in Spring 2022, with a new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital opening in 2025.”
As part of the panel’s decision, it also advised that patients and the public be engaged in shaped the new services in order to maximise the potential benefit received from them locally.
