The deteriorating condition of Stepping Hill Hospital, where leaders are appealing for funds to prevent risks to patient safety, has been described as 'extremely worrying' by a government minister.
NHS bosses in Stockport renewed their urgent appeal for money this week to stop the hospital estate falling further into disrepair. While the site has seen significant upgrades in recent years, including new multi-million-pound emergency and outpatient departments, many buildings require major work.
Numerous areas are in a decrepit state after 121 years of treating patients. More than half of the estate is deemed to be in 'poor' or 'bad' condition.
Medics report 'falling apart' wards
One medic said wards are 'falling apart', claiming some buildings 'need to be condemned'. Patients sometimes have to be transferred elsewhere or have surgeries cancelled, with the 'snowball effect' worsening waiting times.
Pictures from inside the hospital show disintegrating walls, leaking roofs and precarious floors. Damp affects areas of the estate, water trickles from windows when it rains, and some staircases are closed.
One ward is completely shut due to roof issues, while the floor on one busy corridor is 'in danger of collapsing'. Steam from pipes below is rotting floorboards. One cramped staff toilet is used by 30 people.
Funding shortfall and structural failures
Bosses say a major issue occurs five or six times a year, with smaller scale problems cropping up weekly. Two years ago, one of the major outpatient buildings was condemned and demolished. There were then two 'unexpected and unrelated' ceiling collapses at the radiology department and critical care units.
Pleas for extra funding from the government have been made, but no commitment was given by ministers. This week, that plea was renewed. Stockport NHS Foundation Trust estimates it will cost more than £134m just to maintain current buildings at a basic level over the next five years, outstripping the £118m of government funding announced so far.
Ideally, hospital bosses want around £400m to properly address the issues, saying money would be saved in the long term. Chief operating officer Jackie McShane said: "If we do not do something soon in this organisation, we will have significant failings in corridors. I can't stress this enough."
MPs raise concerns in Parliament
Hazel Grove Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart said she was angry after seeing staff forced to collect water leaking through a ceiling in a bucket meant for needles, adding: "We shouldn't have anybody working in those conditions."
She added: "It cannot be sensible decision making that has got us to this point where it is costing so much more to generate energy; so much more to insulate the buildings; so much more to just run to stand still with the maintenance and plugging gaps."
On Tuesday, the issue was raised in the House of Commons following MPs' 'harrowing' experiences visiting the hospital in recent weeks. Cheadle MP Tom Morrison said: "I saw staff and patients' dignity taken away from them. I saw a building completely and utterly unfit for purpose and I saw a health system that was left to rot, quite literally, over the years of Conservative neglect now being given only plasters by the current government."
Health minister Alison McGovern said years of underinvestment had caused problems across the NHS, but said there are no quick fixes. The government, she said, is investing £1.5bn across the country and millions into Stepping Hill, with more money promised in the future.
Describing the situation as 'extremely worrying', she said: "I cannot pretend that what has been done resolves every infrastructure challenge at Stepping Hill. It clearly does not. The pressures facing the hospital have built up over many years and will take time to address, but we are putting the local NHS on a much stronger footing to tackle them."
Following the debate, Ms Smart said the government minister 'seemed to be genuinely shocked by what she heard and maybe this is the time that it cuts through', but added: "We've had a succession of ministers who have said the right words, but not delivered. Kind words and sympathy don't deliver the care and investment that patients and hospital staff deserve."
