Harlow: New hospital may not be built until 2028

A new hospital to replace the Princess Alexandra in Harlow may not be built until 2028

A new hospital to replace the Princess Alexandra site in Harlow may not be built until 2028, it has emerged.

The timing of work on the new facility depends on a government review of how to standardise new hospitals, Essex County Council heard.

Michael Meredith, director of strategy at Princess Alexandra Hospital, said he was confident about receiving funding worth about £800m.

The new hospital will be built in Sheering, about five miles (8km) away.

When the Health Infrastructure Plan was published in 2019, the new Princess Alexandra Hospital was expected to be finished by 2025.

Mr Meredith told the council's health overview policy and scrutiny committee on 7 April that "UK plc is in a very different place now than it was when the programme was announced".

He said the 2028 date "is completely reliant on the outcome of the design conversion review", reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The business case for the national programme was scheduled to be completed in the spring and to be signed off by the Treasury by the end of the autumn, Mr Meredith said.

He added: "We are strongly supported by the new hospital programme. They have stood behind us all the way so far. They talk about our scheme extremely highly.

"We are a completely brand new standalone hospital on a greenfield site. It is an extremely attractive project for the programme and the industry so we are very confident we will get funding.

"They have £3.7bn that has been allocated and it will be considerably more than that to build 48 new hospitals," he said.

"So they have to work out how the funding will flow hence the time it is taking them to develop the programme business case and go to treasury."