The National Audit Office (NAO) said on Monday that only 32 of the 40 hospitals promised by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson were due to be completed on schedule by 2030.

The NAO report stated that the government had not achieved good value for money with its New Hospital Programme, adding that it had spent £1.1 billion ($1.44 billion) by March 2023.

The hospital building target was a key election pledge of Johnson in 2019, and he resigned as leader last year.

The promise of 40 new hospitals in England by 2030 has been criticised, with some of the proposals being for renovations of existing hospitals.

Eight other hospitals that had been approved by the health ministry before Johnson made his pledge had not originally been intended to count towards the target.

Including those projects, there would be 40 new hospitals by the end of the decade, a health ministry spokesperson said.

However, opposition Labour Party lawmaker Meg Hillier said there had been a "woeful lack of progress" towards hitting the target, which the government was now trying to change.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been trying to move the goal posts so it can claim it has met its target, Hillier said in a statement.

Patients and clinicians are going to have to wait much longer than they expected before their new hospitals are completed.

The NAO report comes at a challenging time for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is preparing for an election expected next year.

Sunak has made cutting hospital waiting lists one of his priorities for 2023.

The report highlights the difficulties faced by the government in delivering on its promises and the challenges it faces in providing quality healthcare to the public.