Your NHS: How are new hospitals progressing?

In 2020, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced 40 new NHS hospitals would be built by 2030, allocating £3.7bn for the project.

Six of those new sites were earmarked for the south of England with four of them falling in Dorset.

In September 2024, the Labour government said it was "reviewing" the project calling what the Conservatives had promised "undeliverable and unaffordable".

So which projects survived and which didn't and where are we now?

Work to build new hospitals in Dorset was underway before the national scheme was announced, said Stephen Killen, the head of transformation at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.

The county received a boost in funding from the government, which means projects at St Ann's Hospital in Poole, Dorchester Hospital, Bournemouth Hospital and Poole Hospital are all underway or nearing completion.

Speaking from the new same day emergency care (SDEC) department at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Killen said it was a "same day emergency department" which will be a "significant improvement" in efficiency and flow through the hospital.

He said the trust has received more than £260m from the government's new hospital scheme.

"I believe we are going to see an improved healthcare system in the Dorset area," Killen said.

He added: "It's given us the better part of 300 to 400 beds across our sites, it's improved theatres, it's given us a brand new main entrance on the Royal Bournemouth site, it's got a brand new kitchen and catering unit on the back of that so we've been very lucky."

He made clear that despite this improvement there is still a £200m backlog of work that still needs to be done to "bring the hospitals up to scratch".

He said this was linked to the "fabric" of the old estates, which need better windows, insulation and roofing.

"Whilst we have been very lucky and very successful in getting money, there is still a long way to go," Killen said.

Some of the changes have proved controversial, as there has been a shake up of the emergency departments in the county.

From July/ August 2026, people taken by ambulance for emergency treatment will go to the hospital in Bournemouth, while patients who have planned procedures and non-emergency healthcare services will go to the hospital in Poole.

Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey was added to the government's list for funding in 2023.

The site, which was built in the 1970s provides NHS hospital services for 900,000 people in Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, and South Buckinghamshire.

It received support after concerns were raised about the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) beams that make up most of the main building.

Caroline Hutton, Deputy Chief Executive and Senior Responsible Officer of the new hospital programme at Frimley Health said the funding would be used for "a state-of-the-art replacement of the current hospital".

The trust says it has located a site and work to replace the hospital building is due to begin in 2030 but the NHS has not revealed where it will be, saying it will do so "as soon as commercial confidentiality restrictions have passed".

Dr Al Pinkerton, MP for Surrey Heath, said it was an "open secret" the NHS wanted to build on Pine Ridge Golf Club, and he fears the new site will be "more difficult to access" than the current hospital.

The government is now deciding whether the preferred site for a new acute Frimley Park hospital will be approved.

As for Hampshire and Berkshire the prospect of a new hospital is much further down the road.

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust received £500,000 from the government and is expected to choose a site for a new hospital by March 2026.

Hampshire Hospitals, confirmed it had been allocated funding to buy land for a new facility in Basingstoke.

However both trusts have expressed "disappointment" that construction is not likely to begin until 2037 at the earliest.