Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to refurbish or reconstruct Eastbourne District General Hospital.

We are committed to delivering a new hospital at Eastbourne District General Hospital which forms part of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) scheme for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust; this also includes works at Conquest Hospital and Bexhill Community Hospital. All NHP schemes represent hospitals that require a high need for investment in the estate and have been assessed based on a combination of criteria including the level of Critical Infrastructure Risk and deliverability upon joining the programme. We are working closely with the trust to support the development of their Strategic Outline Case and identify opportunities for early construction work to support main scheme delivery. The New Hospital Programme has provided over £9 million in scheme development funding up to the end of 2022/23, and a further £4.7 million was provided in 2023/24 to support the development of business cases for early enabling works to take place.