Crumbling buildings cause 5,000 incidents impacting patient care in areas promised 40 new hospitals
EMBARGO: Immediate Release
New analysis from the Liberal Democrats has revealed the devastating impact on patients of the Conservative government’s broken pledge to build 40 new hospitals.
The figures show that since 2019 there have been over 5,000 incidents caused by crumbling infrastructure at the NHS trusts promised a new hospital by Boris Johnson. These incidents are recorded when care for at least five patients is delayed or cancelled, and can include crumbling NHS buildings, power failures, leaking roofs or faulty equipment
There have been 5,218 such incidents at the NHS trusts that were promised a new hospital since 2019. This means care for at least 26,000 patients in these areas has been impacted by crumbling NHS infrastructure during this period.
The worst impacted trust was Princess Alexandra Hospital with over 1,000 incidents since 2019. Last year the hospital reported 40 sewage leaks including in the A&E and resuscitation area. This included incidents where staff felt nauseous and one patient slipped on the sewage and fell.
St Helier Hospital in Sutton has also seen serious issues, with entire wards closed and an Intensive Care Unit currently being used as a storeroom as it is unsafe for patients. Maternity patients at the hospital have often had to take the stairs up to their ward due to broken lifts.
Royal Lancaster Infirmary, part of The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust, was described as having ‘damaged flooring, crumbling walls and broken furnishings’ in a 2021 report that rated its medical services ‘inadequate’.
It comes after it emerged the total backlog of maintenance repairs facing NHS trusts has reached a new record high of £12 billion.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
“It is shocking that so many patients are seeing their care impacted by crumbling NHS infrastructure in the very areas promised a new hospital by the Conservatives.
“No patients or staff should have to be treated in hospital buildings with leaking roofs and floors at risk of collapse.
“This Conservative government has allowed our hospitals to fall into a disgraceful state of disrepair and patients and staff are paying the price.
“People are fed up with years of broken promises from Conservative ministers while the state of local health services gets worse and worse. We urgently need to see more investment in fixing crumbling hospital buildings so people can get the care they deserve.”
ENDS
Notes to Editor
Reported first in The Guardian.
The analysis is based on figures from NHS Digital compiled by the House of Commons Library. Full figures are available here.
Data definitions available here. An incident is considered to be a delay of at least 30 minutes to clinical services affecting at least 5 patients or equivalent.
A list of the 40 new hospitals promised by the Conservative government in 2019 can be found here
Specific issues with hospitals mentioned in the release can be found here:
