NHS England is seeking 10 contractors to deliver under the government’s new hospital programme
The contractors will become a part of a multi-supplier framework agreement for hospital build, refurbishment and ancillary works.
The framework will cover various parts of the programme
The works taken in this framework can include design, construction, commissioning, handback of major hospital schemes, refurbishment, testing, ancillary and enabling works, fit out, landscaping, highways, office building, asset protection, planning, car parks, digital and lifecycle maintenance for capital works.
NHS England is seeking firms with major project experience, as well as capacity and capability for the delivery of complex hospital construction and refurbishment works.
Up to ten places are available on the framework, but circumstances may enable 11 places to be awarded.
NHS contractors will work on the largest hospital construction scheme in years
The new hospital programme was originally established in 2019, however, the current Labour government has updated the programme with a longer timetable to allow more flexibility in delivery.
HM Treasury will invest in the programme in five-year waves with £15bn in each wave to bring an average of £3bn per year after 2030.
The programme is prioritising seven hospitals in the country that have been constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, due to the risk posed by the material in the building.
The scheme is expected to begin in earnest next year, with work continuing on to 2039.
In a statement during the announcement of the timetable, secretary of state for health and social care, Wes Streeting, said: “I was shocked by what I found on entering the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The programme was hugely delayed, by several years more than had already been revealed by the National Audit Office. Most shocking of all, the funding for the programme was due to run out in March of this year, with no provision for future years whatsoever. The money simply was not there. The programme was built on the shaky foundation of false hope and without the confirmed funding these building projects could not be delivered, let alone delivering them all in the next 5 years.
“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.”
More information can be found here.
