MPs press for details of Budget spending at Stepping Hill

Stockport MPs Lisa Smart and Tom Morrison have written to Health Minister Karin Smyth to get details of whether extra repairs funding for the NHS announced in the Budget will be spent at Stepping Hill, with the hospital facing a record backlog of repairs in the tens of millions.

They have also asked for details of how to ensure that the promised “sustainable and deliverable” new hospitals programme includes a new, additional site for Stepping Hill, to ensure that the emergency repairs are backed up by a proper long-term plan.

Coming just weeks after the Health Minister Karin Smyth said that no additional funding was available for Stepping Hill, MP Lisa Smart said: “It is still unclear what this funding means for Stepping Hill; I want confirmation that this means that there will be the urgent repairs that are so desperately needed. 

“It is also vital that when they have talked about a sustainable hospital building programme that this will include a new additional site for Stepping Hill in the centre of Stockport.

“As ever, the devil is in the detail, and so far we have no detail about what this means for local people.”

The Budget promised “over £1 billion” to deal with the repairs backlog and dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), but simply promised more details to come from the Department of Health and Social Care “in due course”.

Tom Morrison continued: “Just weeks ago, Karin Smyth wrote to us saying that there was no money available. Now there is a promise of funding. We know that the Government are facing a catastrophic legacy from the former Conservative administration, but we need to know that the absolutely vital repairs at Stepping Hill are going to be tackled, with the urgency that they need.”