None of Boris Johnson's 40 'new hospitals' will be finished by next election, says NHS chief

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said 'it looks like no new hospitals will be fully built' by 2024 - although No10 claims otherwise

Boris Johnson visiting a hospital (

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None of Boris Johnson's 40 'new hospitals' will be fully built by the next election, an NHS chief predicted today.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health trusts across the country, has spoken as the audit watchdog investigates the notorious 2019 election pledge.< /p>

Officials have previously said the "new hospitals" include renovations and new wings, not just new buildings, and six were to be completed by 2025 and the others by 2030.

But Mr Taylor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It looks like no new hospitals will be fully built by the next election.'

It was contradicted by Downing Street, which today insisted "by 2024, six hospitals will be completed".

But Mr. Taylor had already made a similar point on Sunday, telling LBC Radio: “None of these [six initial hospitals] will now be completed.

"And in fact no labor has even started in most cases."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (

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Of the 40 "new hospitals", 32 sites were announced in October 2020 and the remaining eight sites are to be confirmed later this year.

In addition to this, the government decided to include eight other projects that had already been approved under the previous government, bringing the total to 48.

Mr. Taylor told the BBC: "This list of 48 projects - there are new hospitals in there, but the majority are upgrades, A&E upgrades, community hospital upgrades, these are new wings."

Speaking to the BBC, he added: "I think the general public understands that a new hospital is a whole new hospital, in those terms it is misleading.

"But in fairness to the government, for several years now, the...