The crumbling state of NHS buildings

“We’ve had patients faint, be unable to keep their appointments, or have to leave. The nurses keep sick bowls and glasses of water for them.”

This, and other similar examples, is the reality for many doctors working in NHS buildings in the UK. Doctors may be delivering 21st century care but in many cases it’s being provided in crumbling 19th century buildings.

In January it was revealed that the New Hospital Programme—first announced by Boris Johnson’s government in 2020—would not be completed until at least a decade after the original deadline. The scheme aimed to deliver 40 “new” hospitals—some of which were refurbishments or extensions rather than new buildings—by 2030.1

Following the 2024 general election, the Labour government conducted a review of the programme and found that it was unfunded beyond 2025. This resulted in an announcement that it would not be completed until at least a decade after the original deadline.2

In a foreword to the review, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said, “If I was shocked by the state of this programme, patients ought to be furious. Not only because the promises made to them were never going to be kept; they also desperately need new buildings and new hospitals.

“The NHS is quite literally crumbling. I have visited hospitals where the roof has fallen in, pipes regularly leak and even freeze over in winter.”

The news came after Ara Darzi published his independent investigation of the NHS in England.3 He found that much of the NHS estate is “crumbling, notably in primary care, with a backlog of maintenance across the …