The spin tactics of the government are being questioned after it was revealed that the government has ordered NHS trusts to call hospital refurbs ‘new hospitals’ as it attempts to hit its 2030 build target.

The communications ‘playbook’ for the government’s NHS building programme tells trusts that  any major refurbishments, new wings, and units ‘must always be referred to as a new hospital’ and that trusts should reiterate ministers’ commitment to open ’48 new hospitals by the end of the decade’.

The guidance instructs: “The schemes named in the announcement are not all identical and vary across a number of factors. However, they do all satisfy the criteria we set of what a new hospital is and so must always be referred to as a new hospital.”

The news, shared by the HSJ, has come to light after Health Secretary Sajid Javid recently described the Northern Centre for Cancer Care as the first of the 48 new hospitals despite it sitting on the existing site of the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, built in 2000. Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust, which runs it, does not describe it as a hospital.

The government has committed £3.7 billion to the building programme, but NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, believes the real cost of building 40 new hospitals would be around £20 billion.