Wokingham MP Clive Jones has used his first question in the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions (PMQ) slot to ask him to meet with patients of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and to explain why they, and staff, should accept 18 years of delay to rebuild the hospital.
He told the Prime Minister that “the least he can do is explain his government’s decision to patients and staff face-to-face”.
Clive was happy to receive a commitment from the Prime Minister that a minister will meet with him, and patients of the Royal Berks, to discuss the problems which the delay exacerbates.
The MP went on to explain that the Royal Berkshire Hospital is projected to need £400 million in capital expenditure to pay for maintenance backlogs, statutory improvements to the estate and other costs over the next 10-years – before the new hospital even begins construction.
In his question to the Prime Minister, Clive said that staff are already having to dodge buckets collecting rainwater from leaking roofs.
Delays to the rebuild of the Royal Berkshire hospital will cost taxpayers in Wokingham, Reading and Berkshire more to keep a crumbling hospital upright.
Mike Smith, a volunteer at the RBH who attended Parliament today, said: “I’ve been volunteering at the hospital for years, helping move patients around the building. I see the deterioration in the building daily.
“Leaking roofs, burst pipes and broken lifts that cannot be repaired. The hospital staff are wonderful, but they are let down by the age and condition of the building.”
Clive Jones said: “Our community is heartbroken by the Government’s decision to push the start date of the Royal Berks’ construction to 2037.
“Patients and staff are already suffering in a building that is no longer fit for purpose and this decision will prolong that misery.
“I invited patients and volunteers from the Royal Berkshire Hospital into Parliament.
“They are the people who will bear the burden of these decisions, and I am pleased the Prime Minister has committed to a ministerial meeting to discuss the problem.
“The previous Conservative government made promises they knew they were never going to keep, but Labour are pushing this rebuild out so far they a real danger of serious harm to both patients and staff.
“I will continue to make this case to the government until they realise the damage this decision will do for people in Wokingham.”
