Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was questioned on the state of repair at Stepping Hill Hospital, during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday (17 January).

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, asked the Prime Minister when and how hospital repair work could be carried out.

"...there are entire hospital buildings that have had to be closed down, like the one in Stepping Hill in Stockport, because they are structurally unsafe", Ms Cooper said. 

"Can the Prime Minister tell me - by the time of the next general election, how many of the broken hospitals will be fixed?"

In his response, Mr Sunak did not mention Stepping Hill directly. He said: "We're investing record sums to not just deliver 40 new hospitals across the country, but 90 different hospital upgrades."

The cost of repairs needed at Stepping Hill has now reached more than £50 million. Nationally, the NHS estate repairs backlog has reached £11.6 billion (Image - Alasdair Perry)

It comes not long after Cllr Tom Morrison, the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Cheadle, wrote a joint letter with Daisy Cooper to the Secretary of State for Health, seeking funding to fix the issues at Stepping Hill's Outpatient B Department.

Speaking of the state of affairs at Stepping Hill, Karen James OBE - Chief Executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust - said: "Stepping Hill Hospital has served the people of Stockport and surrounding areas well since it opened in 1905, but all hospital buildings reach the end of their useful lives.

"Stepping Hill Hospital is an ageing hospital that was not designed to deliver modern acute services [...].

"But even if we had the funds available to carry out all the work needed, it still would not provide the modern hospital environment patients and staff deserve."

A new town centre hospital?

Furthermore, a number of councillors from different parties have called for a new hospital to be constructed in Stockport. Cllr Morrison, and Cllr Lisa Smart - Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Hazel Grove - were among those to do so.

"We've seen years of problems with crumbling buildings at Stepping Hill Hospital, with the final straw being the closure of the Outpatients B department last year", Cllr Smart said.

"That's why I am calling for a new, central hospital for Stockport to provide crucial services that Stepping Hill is struggling to provide."

Lib Dem Parliamentary candidates Lisa Smart and Tom Morrison have called for repairs at Stepping Hill and for a new town centre hospital (Images - Lisa Smart / Tom Morrison)

Similarly, Cllr Morrison said: "Residents in Cheadle Constituency have had to put up with a decaying hospital for too long. 

"We urgently need investment to fix Stepping Hill hospital and a new facility that can serve our communities without patients being left in fear that the very building they are meant to be getting better in could collapse at any moment. It is the very least that we all deserve."

Plans for a new hospital in Stockport - on the site of the former Debenhams building along the A6 - began in 2021. 

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust bid for Stockport to have one of the 40 new hospitals to be built as part of a £3.7 billion Government programme (the same 40 that Mr Sunak alluded to in his response to Daisy Cooper). 

Plans for a new town centre hospital were first aired in 2021 (Image - Stockport Council)

Speaking at the time, Cllr Elise Wilson - then leader of Stockport Council - said: "[The government should] listen to Stockport because it's pitching those ideas and the holistic approach. You listen to Stockport because we deliver."  

Cllr David Meller, Stockport Labour Group leader, said: "Working with NHS colleagues and council officers, we had the vision back in 2021 to see how a new hospital in our town centre could transform that part of the borough and provide the modern hospital Stockport lacks.

"It's something we continue to advocate, so it's great Lisa Smart agrees with us on this – finally."

Conservative councillor John Wright also moved a motion at the time, supporting Stockport NHS Trust's bid for a new hospital "where it could be more accessible, close to public transport interchanges, and potentially contribute to levelling up and regenerating the town centre".

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