Patients, doctors and nurses are enduring constant ward closures and flooding in “dilapidated and unpleasant” buildings because a new hospital promised by the government has still not been delivered, one of its most senior medics has warned.
Patient safety could soon be at risk unless the replacement for St Helier Hospital, in south London, is finally confirmed by ministers, according to the outgoing chief medical officer of its NHS trust. Some of the buildings pre-date the NHS, while wards have been shut due to sinking foundations.
Writing in the Observer, Dr Ruth Charlton, the chief medical officer of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, warns that they now face a race against time before staff can no longer provide safe care.
“Right now, we are delivering safe care – but it’s not easy in such a dilapidated and unpleasant environment, and I fear we won’t be able to provide the level of care we’d like to – or should be – for much longer,” she writes. “Our patients and our staff deserve so much better than this current state – where wards are being shut down because the foundations are sinking, and floods and leaks are a certainty every winter.
“Every day we wait costs money, and each year we have to spend more and more on updating our old, rundown buildings – diverting scarce resources from the front line … there’s no other option. We must progress our plans to build our new hospital and make improvements to our existing sites.”
The hospital’s replacement was to be one of the so-called “40 new hospitals” promised by Boris Johnson and included in 2019’s Conservative election manifesto. The pledge has faced criticism since it emerged that many of the projects are not new hospitals, but extensions or refurbishments.
An Observer investigation earlier this year found that the majority had not even secured full planning permission. Meanwhile, leaked internal documents have suggested that the projected costs of the New Hospitals Programme have ballooned to an estimated £35bn – thought to be more than twice the original cost estimates – as inflation and delays have hit the scheme.
The entire project is being investigated by the National Audit Office, which is expected to deliver a critical verdict over the summer. NHS leaders have been raising concerns about the schemes involved for some time, but tight government control on spending means there is now widespread disbelief that the hospitals will be completed by the original 2030 deadline.
St Helier hospital, in the borough of Sutton, is thought to be one of the schemes with the most pressing need. “Only last week we had to close one of our wards because the lift wasn’t working,” writes Charlton. “The reality is this: we, our patients, and our staff cannot afford to wait any more. The longer these delays, the more money it costs us – and the more difficult it gets to keep our patients safe.”
Some Conservatives believe that lack of progress in delivering the hospitals could have a serious impact in the constituencies involved at the next general election. The Liberal Democrats believe it will help them displace Tory MPs in Eastbourne, Lewes, Carshalton and Wallington, and parts of Berkshire.
“Communities in desperate need of a new hospital are left with more broken promises and a Conservative manifesto that is not worth the paper it was written on,” said Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader and health spokesperson. “The government needs to provide emergency funding to St Helier hospital and others to ensure they are safe places for both staff and patients.”
Other local trusts have confirmed that they are unable to progress projects because they are awaiting government clearance and cash. In a response under the Freedom of Information Act, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust – which is responsible for the plans for a new hospital in Eastbourne – said it was “awaiting confirmation of the level of funding that it will receive from the programme and the options will then be put into place depending on the level of funding allocated”.
It said the trust had so far spent no money on the plan and that no funds had yet been transferred from the government.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are investing £3.7bn for the first four years of the New Hospital Programme and remain committed to the delivery of all schemes as part of the biggest hospital building programme in a generation.
“We have always been clear that individual timelines may be subject to change as we develop the national approach to hospital construction. Early preparatory work has already begun on the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust project.”
