New hospital building due to be finished by 2030

An artist's impression of the proposed new entrance for Watford General Hospital

A new hospital building in Watford is due to be built by 2030, a health minister said, after Liberal Democrats queried the government's timeline for the redevelopment.

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust approved plans in June to rebuild Watford General and refurbish its other hospitals but funding has not yet been agreed.

Lord Markham, undersecretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), said "all schemes" in the national building project were due to be completed by the end of the decade.

Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans said she would keep pressing for the funds "until there are shovels in the ground".

The scheme also includes refurbishment at St Albans City Hospital

Trust board members have approved preferred options for a new hospital on land next to Watford General, including the accident and emergency department and some new buildings, plus refurbishment at Hemel Hempstead and St Albans hospitals. The scheme is expected to cost more than £1bn.

Conservative Nick Markham, whose portfolio includes the new hospital programme, made his comments in a letter to Ms Cooper, a Liberal Democrat MP and the party's spokeswoman for health, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said, after she raised questions over the proposed timeline including when funding will be agreed.

She said local hospital staff were doing "extraordinary work" in "buildings that are quite frankly so old they are now in danger of posing a risk to patients".

"This is perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to build the hospitals that we desperately need here in West Herts, and I'll continue to press the government to release the funds to transform our local hospitals until there are shovels in the ground," she said.

Business case review

Lord Markham said the trust had already received about £51m, which had been used for works such as the multi-storey car park on the Watford site.

He added that a further £11.5m had been confirmed to begin reconfiguring pathology across the trust's three sites.

"However, the full individual funding allocations for schemes are only confirmed once the respective full business cases have been reviewed and agreed, including by HM Treasury," he said.

He added that the project was a Pathfinder scheme, in a cohort of larger and more complex schemes in the programme.

"Please be assured that the national programme is currently working very closely with all the Pathfinder trusts on next steps, including anticipated timescales for the individual schemes," he said.

"All schemes within the programme, including Watford General Hospital, are expected to be delivered by 2030."