£100m sounds a lot but is it enough to fix Milton Keynes Hospital?

Milton Keynes Hospital has been given a £100m government windfall to allow it to develop and expand by 2030.
MK HospitalMK Hospital
MK Hospital

Hospital bosses must now draw up a business case of how they would like to spend the extra cash.

The criteria is that it be used to develop their current services between 2025 an 2030.

The city's two Tory MPs Mark Lancaster and Iain Stewart have today welcomed the cash boost.

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 said: “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."

But MK Council's Labour Cabinet member for health, Hannah O'Neill, was more sceptical.

She said: “Our Conservative MPs can’t pretend they haven’t stood by for the past 10 years of chronic NHS under-funding 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...the NHS is facing severe staff shortages with over 100,000 vacancies. Without the staff to operate them, buildings and scanners alone will not address the severe capacity issues that the health service currently faces.”

MK Hospital was designed and built in the 1980s, when the population of Milton Keynes was significantly smaller. There have been fears over the years that it is not expanding quickly enough to serve the growing population.