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Plans for a new health centre at the former St George’s Hospital site in Hornchurch are to benefit from £17million of funding as part of a nationwide boost for the NHS.

The development in Suttons Lane is one of a number of projects to benefit from the £1.8billion national cash injection announced today by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The funding will enable NHS Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge clinical commissioning groups (BHR CCGs) to progress their plans for the health and wellbeing centre which will offer outpatient-based services, GP services and space for local voluntary and community groups.

It will focus on older people but will benefit the whole community, acting as base for a joint team of health and social care professionals working across BHR.

Reacting to the announcement, Jane Milligan, Accountable Officer for BHR CCGs, said: “This is fantastic news for our local NHS, our patients and the wider public.

“Securing this funding means we can progress our plans to build the new health and wellbeing centre on the site of St George’s Hospital in Hornchurch – providing much-needed services for our growing population both now and into the future.

‘Since last year’s disappointing news that none of the proposed NHS projects in north east London had been allocated the necessary capital funding, local NHS leaders, councils and local MPs have all been lobbying hard to understand and reverse that decision – especially for the most critical schemes, including the centre on the St George’s site.

“There’s still a great deal of work to do, but we can now move forward at pace.”

The new health and wellbeing centre is a key part of plans to redevelop the St George’s Hospital site, which has been vacant since 2012. Proposals for most of the 29-acre site – including new homes and parking – were approved following an appeal in 2017.

The development is one of 20 NHS projects set to share £850million to upgrade outdated facilities and equipment – providing new beds, cutting-edge equipment and additional wards to improve patient care and ultimately save more lives.

An additional £1billion will boost NHS capital spending – allowing existing upgrade programmes to proceed and tackle the most urgent infrastructure projects.