Eleven Hospital Partnerships Signed as New Hospital Programme Moves into Delivery Phase

Hospital 2.0 Alliance brings together NHS trusts and major contractors in long-term collaborative agreements spanning Manchester to Cornwall, with standardised design and modern methods of construction at the core.

Eleven long-term partnerships between NHS trusts and construction organisations have been signed to deliver the next generation of hospitals across England, marking the transition of the New Hospital Programme from planning into active delivery.

The agreements establish the Hospital 2.0 Alliance, a collaborative delivery model combining national design standards, digital innovation and modern methods of construction across all eleven schemes. Rather than treating each hospital as a standalone procurement, the alliance approach enables shared expertise, consistent standards and continuous improvement across the programme – a model the Department of Health and Social Care describes as transforming how major NHS infrastructure is delivered.

The confirmed partnerships are:

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust with GRAHAM; Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust with Willmott Dixon Construction; Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust with Sacyr UK; North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (Hinchingbrooke) with Kier Construction; Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with Laing O’Rourke; James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with Skanska; Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn with Skanska; Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Leighton Hospital) with Integrated Health Projects, the VINCI Building and Sir Robert McAlpine joint venture; Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with Morgan Sindall Construction; Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust with Bovis Construction; and West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust with DRAGADOS.

For the wider construction supply chain, the significance of the announcement extends beyond the eleven named contractors. The Hospital 2.0 model is explicitly designed to generate a sustained pipeline that supports industry growth and skills development, with long-term partnerships intended to encourage innovation and continuous improvement across multiple schemes. Each of the principal contractors will be building out their own supply chains to deliver these projects, spanning structural, mechanical and electrical, fit-out, digital infrastructure, and specialist healthcare environments.

The programme’s use of standardised design and modern methods of construction also signals particular opportunity for offsite manufacturing, modular building systems and prefabricated MEP providers – sectors the government has consistently identified as central to delivering hospitals more efficiently and at better value.

Minister of State for Health Karin Smyth said the changes mark “a major step forward in streamlining the procurement process,” enabling industry to plan with greater certainty and reducing the delays that have historically followed funding approval on major NHS schemes.