Labour have announced that we will deliver vital maintenance in hospitals to help prevent cancelled appointments and operations, with patients in our borough set to benefit from the Government’s Plan for Change.
Across the country, over 400 hospitals, mental health units and ambulance sites will be handed £750 million to tackle long-term problems such as leaky pipes, poor ventilation and electrical issues, helping to prevent thousands of cancelled operations and appointments.
This includes £𝟏𝟎,𝟕𝟐𝟗,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 like Royal Oldham Hospital and £𝟔,𝟖𝟑𝟔,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 like North Manchester General Hospital. This funding is vital and another step in this Government’s mission to fix the dire state of public service infrastructure we inherited from the Tories.
The projects include much needed fire safety, drainage, electrical & energy systems and roof works at these hospitals which will help patients in Oldham, Chadderton and Royton benefit from better services and facilities throughout the health system. Across the country, fixing the backlog of maintenance at NHS hospitals will help prevent cancellations, with services disrupted over 4,000 times in 2023/24 due to issues with poor quality buildings.
The hospital funding package was confirmed in last year’s Autumn Budget, in which an extra £22.6 billion was secured for the NHS by the Labour Government.
The Tories inherited an NHS from the last Labour government which delivered the lowest NHS waiting lists on record, then left NHS waiting lists peaking at their highest level ever of 7.8 million. However, already we have delivered 𝐬𝐢𝐱 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐰. Labour pledged at the election to deliver two million more NHS appointments a year as our first step and we hit that target seven months early.
We promised to get the NHS back off it’s knees and make it fit for the future after 14 years of chronic underfunding and mismanagement, and we are delivering on that promise.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 