Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital investment for new build was invested in Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in the 2021-22 financial year.

£35.9 million in national capital funding was allocated to Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in 2021/22. Somerset NHS Foundation Trust received a total £24,194,000 in 2021/22 towards two hospital upgrade schemes, an Acute Assessment Hub (£7,908,000) and Theatre reprovision scheme (£17,096,000). Schemes involve new builds and changing and improving existing buildings.

The new hospital scheme at Musgrove Park Hospital for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is in Cohort 4 of the New Hospital Programme. Cohort 4 schemes will benefit from knowledge and experience gained from previous builds, as well as standardised designs enabling the best use of digital technology, sustainable buildings, and modern methods of construction.

Up to the end of 2021/22 the New Hospital Programme provided a total of £3.428 million in funding for the scheme. In 2020/21 the Trust received £1.5 million and in 2021/22 the Trust received £1.928 million. With respect to wider capital, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust received £1.7 million from the Targeted Investment Fund for estate works in 2021/22, including Oral Maxillo-Facial, Plastics and Dental Service expansion, and £2.7 million from the same fund for digital initiatives in the same year. In addition to this, the Trust also received £4.1 million for Community Diagnostics Hubs. £1.3 million for miscellaneous capital schemes, e.g. investment in diagnostics and cyber security. In addition to the national funding, the trust received £24.5 million in operational capital in 2021/22.