The government has announced £100m of funding for Milton Keynes Hospital to ‘develop’ re-build plans.
Milton Keynes is one of 34 hospitals who have been given the initial cash boost, with a further 6 being given money to start construction immediately.
But Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has claimed the plans have ‘quickly unraveled as spin’.
"This isn't 40 new hospitals, it is just reconfiguring six" he said.
The government has said £13bn will be spent in total on hospital projects around the UK, including entirely new buildings or revamping existing structures to improve facilities.
Local MPs Mark Lancaster and Iain Stewart have welcomed the announcement.
Mr Lancaster said: "I'm delighted we've secured yet another significant investment for our hospital. This comes on top of the new academic centre, cancer centre, the combined front door and new beds in A&E. This latest windfall will ensure we have a modern and world class hospital."
Mr Stewart added: “I've said it before and I'll say it again, our hospital really does have a bright future. The staff are incredibly dedicated and the expansion project is ambitious, the perfect mix for success. I'm pleased Mark and I can play a role in lobbying the Health Secretary and making sure MK is always on his mind."
Cllr Hannah O’Neill, Cabinet Member for Health and Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Milton Keynes South said: “Like most of Boris Johnson’s commitments we will have to wait and see whether this is just another headline and what the funding is for, but of course capital investment in our already underfunded and overstretched hospital is always welcome.”
”However our Conservative MPs can’t pretend they haven’t stood by for the past ten years of chronic NHS underfunding and austerity and pretend this is anything other than an election headline in a marginal seat.”
”While new buildings are welcome, we need more doctors and nurses to make the NHS work and cut waiting lists, and the reality is the NHS is never safe with the Tories.”
