Website of the Department of Health

Rebuilding the NHS: A new generation of healthcare facilities

This Government is undertaking the largest hospital building programme in the history of the NHS.

Capital expenditure has increased from around £1.1 billion in 1997-98 to around £5.5 billion in 2007-08. This record investment has not just replaced old buildings with new ones. For this Government, the investment has served three key purposes:

• Improving the patient environment and experience in terms of more single rooms and better designed hospitals
• Modernising services - trusts have to reassess how they shape and configure their services and patient pathways, taking on board the provision of new IT, new equipment and new clinical areas
• Improving access and offering better choice by delivering a whole new generation of facilities so patients have more control over when, where and how they are seen

• Download Rebuilding the NHS - A new generation of healthcare facilities (PDF, 2970K)