Published: 15:40, 17 August 2026

Work is continuing to accelerate plans for a new Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The focus has shifted from developing a new £2 billion facility off the M11, near Junction 7a at Sheering, to rebuilding on the existing site at Hamstel Road in Harlow.

In January, 2025, the then Health Secretary Wes Streeting dashed hopes of early progress when he confirmed a 2032 date for construction to begin.

Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow

Tom Burton, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust’s chief financial and infrastructure officer and interim deputy chief executive, said it now looked like there could be further delays in the Government’s updated New Hospital Programme.

He said: “So we’ve really looked at what the alternatives are that we can do around trying to bring that forward.

“We have a plan…we haven’t got a lot of control over 7a. We don’t own the land. The ownership aspects are really challenging.

Tom Burton

“So…can we redevelop the existing site and rebuild the hospital where we are? We’ve been having conversations with the national team around the feasibility of that. It’s got a number of advantages, not least of all, we own the land.”

He said building off the M11 meant a 15-year wait for new facilities to be operational, while phased rebuilding at Hamstel Road would bring benefits much sooner. He warned: “With the quality of the estate we have, we can’t really wait.”

“Early indications are that it would be cheaper than building on the 7a site, because we’d start to build sooner and construction inflation is really challenging.”

Image shows the vision for the new Princess Alexandra Hospital off Junction 7a of the M11

He said funding for the new hospital would also enable the trust to bring forward community facilities more quickly.

“We’re just going through the business case process, ” he said. “The first stage is called a strategic outline case. It’s our case to the Treasury about why this would be a compelling option.

“In order to do that [re-use the Hamstel Road site], not only would we have to build in phases, but we would also have to move a lot of our current services off-site, and we’ve already proved that we can do that. We’ve built the blood testing facility at the Harvey Centre.”

He said the hospital’s maternity unit was “the oldest part of our estate” and a priority would be to move some of its services away from the main site.

Mr Burton said: “That’s going to be our mantra going forward. Services that need to be on the main hospital site will be there.

“But a lot of people come here who don’t need to be here. We’re looking at redevelopment with the women’s health hub. We’re looking at other options in the Harvey Centre. We know we’ve got the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, which we don’t necessarily use to its full potential.”

Plans are already in place to provide more services at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, developing a neighbourhood health centre, and the trust is looking at options for Ongar War Memorial Hospital.

Mr Burton said: “The redevelopment programme is all about making sure we get the right care in the right place and closer to patients.

“It is much, much better for patients and usually better value for money. We’ll have a lot more detail on the plans around what the new hospital could look like imminently.”

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