Facts

Most of these are upgrades or new wings, not new hospitals. 

In 2021, the government reinvented the definition of “new hospital” by ordering NHS Trusts to describe a “major new clinical building on an existing site or a new wing of an existing hospital” and a “major refurbishment and alteration of all but the building frame or main structure” as a “new hospital”.

Verdict

Boris Johnson departed No 10 Downing Street in the same way he entered the building three years earlier. His claim about 40 (sometimes 48)  hospitals was a straightforward lie, and one uttered repeatedly by Johnson, as this website has recorded.

We emailed Boris Johnson's office offering him the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.