§ Mr. SoleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how the cost of the new Westminster and Chelsea hospital will be funded; what effect it will have on national health service provision in the region; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what was the estimated cost for the new Westminster and Chelsea hospital submitted to his Department in 1987; what is the current estimate of the actual cost; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 18 October 1991]: Approval in principle for the Westminster and Chelsea hospital at a cost of £135 million was given in December 1988. The figures in the submission then made to the Department were principally intended to provide a comparison of the various options under consideration, and for this purpose did not need to include local construction costs or the effects of a likely general increase in construction costs. They were not intended to be an estimate of outturn costs.
We now expect the total cost to be £206 million.
When approval in principle is given to a project we now publish an estimate of the actual costs likely to be incurred.
The project will be funded from the sale of the five surplus sites which will be vacated and from the North West Thames regional health authority's capital allocation. The new hospital will reprovide more efficiently and effectively the services currently provided on the five sites which are to become redundant.