HC Deb 16 October 1990 vol 177 c791W
74. Mr. Irvine

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospitals have been built in the past 11 years; and how many more are being planned.

Mr. Dorrell

Almost 500 health building schemes, each costing over £1 million, have been completed in the national health service in the last 11 years. A further 462 schemes are currently at various stages of planning, design and construction in a programme worth about £5 billion. This represents the largest sustained building programme in the history of the NHS.