The debate about hospitals in our area has been going backwards and forwards for many years. The futures of Epsom and St Helier hospitals have been in the balance for literally decades. And then, last year, a solution seemed to have been agreed. Both Epsom and St Helier hospitals were to remain as district hospitals with significant expenditure for improvements AND a new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital would be built in Sutton.

In June 2021 the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said, “ The new hospital will be one of 40 under the Government’s New Hospital Programme and is one of six in the first phase of the programme, benefiting from £2.7 billion of funding from 2020 to 2025. The plans will also see at least £80 million spent across both Epsom and St Helier hospitals”.

This new 500 bed (most of them single occupancy) cleaner and greener hospital would meet the needs of our sickest patients. The new hospital was to bring together six major services – A&E, Critical Care, Acute Medicine, Emergency Surgery, Inpatient Paediatrics and Maternity Services. The two existing hospitals would continue to provide 24-hour urgent care as well as most of their existing services.

At last it seemed that we were seeing positive action supported by substantial (£511 million) government investment. But that was six months ago.

Today, the Chief Executive, Daniel Elkeles, who had been driving the new hospital project, has gone. Although there is no public confirmation that the trust is to be merged with St George’s, its Chief Executive, Jacqueline Totterdell now leads both Trusts. And Government has apparently cut the budget for the new hospital by over £100 million meaning that the previously published plans will need to be substantially reduced.

So what’s going to happen? We contacted the Trust’s media team to ask if we can still expect a new hospital in 2026. It took them over a week to respond because they needed to obtain “sign off” higher up. We thought we might be getting some firm news at last but after much pushing their response was “The Specialist Emergency Care Hospital planned for Sutton remains on track, supported by the government and the previously agreed funding also remains in place. We are still finalising some things, but hope to have our next round of public engagement very soon and look forward to input from local residents, including those of Tattenham and Preston”.

No comment on the apparent budget cut or change in leadership. We sincerely hope that their response is correct, and the budget is intact but, based on past experience, think there are likely to be significant changes and delays if not major cutbacks to our proposed new hospital. We will do our best to find out more and keep you up to date on developments.