The UK looks set to fail on a pledge to build 32 new hospitals in England by 2030, according to a parliamentary committee’s report that highlights further weakness in the National Health Service.

No new hospitals have opened as of last month after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed in 2019 to build 40 over the next decade, according to the report from the Public Accounts Committee. The goal was lowered to 32 hospitals in May.

“The physical edifice that is the NHS is quite literally crumbling before our eyes,” Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said in a statement. The lack of progress has been caused by the “raiding of capital budgets for day-to-day spending,” the report said.

“There was nothing inevitable about this heartbreaking crisis,” Hillier said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was still committed to delivering the new hospitals and expected the projects to be backed by over £20 billion ($25 billion) of investment.

(Updates with government response in final paragraph.)

Author: Helen Chandler-Wilde