The fate of the new Frimley Park Hospital is hanging in the balance after the government announced the new hospitals plan will be put under review.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the programme, brought in by the previous government and promising to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030, will be reconsidered during a minister’s question time in Parliament on July 29.

The chancellor said Labour must address a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in its finances.

Frimley Park in Surrey was granted funding for replacement under the programme in May 2023. The hospital is made up of around 65 per cent of unstable concrete, including in key areas of operating theatres, intensive care units, wards and corridors.

Al Pinkerton, MP for Surrey Heath, said that residents and patients would be ‘deeply anxious’ about the future of the hospital.

Former MP for Bracknell, Conservative James Sunderland, has said that if the hospital doesn’t get relocated it will be a ‘travesty’ for people in the area.

Mr Sunderland said Labour’s ‘refusal to commit’ to the programme was ‘stark’.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: “Having worked hard to secure government funding, I am clear that the new Frimley Park Hospital must happen as planned. Anything less will be a travesty for people in Bracknell Forest and beyond.”

The post included a link to a petition that has received more than 4,200 signatures.

However, work on the new hospital will continue despite speculation following the government announcement.

A spokesperson for the NHS Frimley Trust said that they had noted the statement from the Chancellor and was working to understand what the review would mean for the hospital.

The new MP for Bracknell, Labour’s Peter Swallow, highlighted the need for progress on Frimley Park during the election campaign.

In an interview with the News, he said: “Let’s be clear, this redevelopment has taken too long…Bracknell has had to put up with a crumbling hospital while we’ve waited for the politicians to get their priorities straight.”

This comes as the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading has been placed under similar jeopardy following news of the review. It has recently entered a consultation on where the site could be relocated.

In a joint statement from Reading’s three Labour MPs, Yuan Yang, Matt Rodda and Olivia Bailey said it was an ‘outrage that the Conservatives promised new hospitals while covering up that they had no money to pay for it'.