The government has pledged billions for hospital projects across England, at the start of the Conservative party conference.
The plans include a £2.7bn investment for six hospitals over five years.
A new approach to NHS mental health treatment will also be trialled in 12 areas of England – with housing and job support alongside psychological help.
NHS Providers welcomed the funding but said more was needed to make up for “a decade of capital squeeze”.
The organisation, which represents trusts in England, said the NHS’s annual capital spending of around £6bn needed to double over the next five to 10 years to meet its needs.
The government says £70m is also being invested in the mental health pilot areas, with the NHS building more ties with charities and local councils.
About 1,000 extra specialist staff will be recruited in 12 pilot sites, with expertise in a range of mental health issues, the government says.
‘State-of-the-art hospitals’
Under plans drawn up by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the government has said £13bn will be spent on hospital projects, including entirely new buildings or revamping existing structures to improve facilities.
The same pot of money will also be used to develop plans for further projects in the future.
Mr Hancock said the funding would come from taxpayers, rather than PFI contracts whereby private firms fund the cost of building facilities and, in return, the state makes payments over a stipulated period of time for their use and management.
The six hospital trusts to benefit from the £2.7bn in funding are:
- Whipps Cross Hospital, in Leytonstone, east London
- Epsom and St Helier Trust
- West Hertfordshire Trust
- Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust
- University Hospitals of Leicester Trust
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.
Mr Hancock told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that funding for these six trusts was in place so building work could begin “straight away”.
A further 34 hospitals will receive £100m in initial funding to start developing projects, including Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham and the North Manchester General Hospital.
The remaining projects, including up to a dozen smaller rural hospitals, would be completed over the second half of the next decade.
The plans also include £200m for replacing MRI, CT scanners and breast cancer screening equipment.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said the commitments were “significant” and “particularly good news” for the six hospitals that would directly benefit.
However, he said funding to complete schemes in 34 other hospitals had not yet been allocated.
“It’s not just these six hospitals who have crumbling, outdated, infrastructure – community and mental health trusts, ambulance services and other hospitals across the country have equally pressing needs,” he added.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the government’s announcement that it was building 40 new hospitals had “quickly unravelled as spin”.
“This isn’t 40 new hospitals, it is just reconfiguring six,” he said.
“New investment is desperately needed and of course we welcome any genuine new money, but patients and demoralised NHS staff are fed up of being taken for fools like this.”
