The planned rebuild of the Royal Berkshire hospital may be delayed until the late 2030s.
The RBH has been placed in the final wave of a three-wave plan that, according to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, will see construction begin between 2035 and 2039.
In a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon, the health secretary confirmed in the much touted announcement that the previous government’s new hospital programme was unachievable, and was unfunded.
Funding was given to the medical institution by the previous conservative government, to enable it to be redeveloped and relocated.
But this support has since been reviewed by Labour as it attempts to address the £22 billion hole in its finances.
MP for Wokingham Clive Jones said last year that delivering RBH would cost more than £1.2 billion.
“Parts of the building date back to 1839,” he said.
“Staff have to work in offices where the windows do not open, and they regularly have to walk around buckets that are there to catch dripping rainwater.”
Clive Jones pledged his support for the hospital during his maiden speech in Parliament in September, when he said that he ‘wouldn’t be standing here today’ if it weren’t for the RBH, where he was successfully treated for cancer in 2008, and later diagnosed for a quadruple heart bypass in 2016.
