The funding includes £1.3bn for maintenance, safety and resilience projects across the NHS estate, including £32 million for specific projects that are improving cooling and ventilation systems and strengthening hospitals' resilience to extreme heat. A further £200m will fund 10 major hospital projects.

Yvette Cooper, secretary of state for health and social care, said: ‘This is just the start. Through our 10 Year Capital Plan, we will continue investing in the NHS buildings and facilities staff and patients need, helping build a health service that is fit for the future.'

The £200m investment will include new operating theatres, a new ward for children, safer maternity and mental health facilities and improvements to protect vital services that help doctors diagnose and treat patients.

The 10 hospitals benefiting are: Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport; Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol; Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead; Wycombe Hospital, Buckinghamshire; Crystal Centre/Linden Centre, Essex; Lister Hospital, Hertfordshire; Southend Hospital, Essex; St George's Hospital, Stafford; Royal Free Hospital, London; and John Howard Centre, London.

Alongside the 10 major projects, more than 950 schemes have been approved across the country.

Reaction

Sir Ciarán Devane, chief executive of The NHS Alliance, said: ‘We welcome this investment. The summer heatwaves showed up the poor condition of many NHS buildings which are dilapidated and poorly designed to cope with hot weather.

‘This funding will help both staff and patient wellbeing. All efforts to improve productivity are a good thing though the context is that the NHS continues to face a sizeable maintenance backlog, including a number of issues that require prompt action to address.'

Tim Lane, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: ‘We welcome this first allocation from the Government's NHS Estate Safety Fund. It comes at a critical time. This summer, surgeons reported that extreme heat, ageing ventilation systems and deteriorating hospital buildings were making it harder to keep operating theatres running and patients treated on time. 

‘Investment in cooling, ventilation and other measures to make hospitals more resilient to heat is a positive start. But while we must future-proof the NHS against increasingly frequent heatwaves, we also need to expand surgical capacity if we are to meet the 92% elective waiting time target and ensure patients get the operations they need without unnecessary delay.'