Hospitals awaiting rebuilds face sewage leaks and delayed ops

The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex has been plagued by problems with its ageing buildings and equipment in recent years.

It has regular difficulties with floods and sewage leaks across its site, which dates back to the 1960s.

There have been reports of patients slipping on flooded floors, foul smells of faeces filling A&E and leaks on wards and in the operating theatre areas, posing a risk to patients and staff alike.

Along with broken equipment and other building-related problems, it leads to so-called “infrastructure” incidents occurring three times a week on average, according to official NHS data analysed by the Liberal Democrats.

Over the summer, two of the main operating theatres were out of action, disrupting care for patients needing hip and knee surgery.

“We were unable to get the ventilation parts. We were unable to get the light fittings,” hospital chief operating officer Stephanie Lawton told the BBC.

“It took us several weeks to get those theatres repaired. The infrastructure is quite old now – it’s very difficult to maintain.”

It should not have been like this. Back in September 2019, there was delight at the hospital when it was announced at the Conservative party conference that a new hospital would replace the existing one.

Hospital bosses were soon predicting the doors at the new site would open in 2024 as Boris Johnson promised England 40 new hospitals, including upgrades of existing sites, in his 2019 election manifesto.

But by 2023 the planned finish date for Princess Alexandra had slipped to 2030 – and this week it became one of 18 hospitals to be told there rebuilds would be delayed even further in an announcement on Monday, which largely slipped under the radar as attention was focused on the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.

Construction work on Princess Alexandra will now not start until 2032 at the earliest. In the meantime, the hospital has no option but to limp on.

Ms Lawton says the hospital is spending about £9m a year just maintaining and repairing the current estate.

“Staff come to work to deliver outstanding care to our patients every single day and working within a hospital that is very old and breaks down is very frustrating for them,” she adds.

Torbay Hospital, one of the oldest in the NHS dating back to the 1920s, and Leeds General Infirmary have both reported problems with sewage leaks and flooding too and are in the same position.

Others have been put back even further, with a number told it could be the late 2030s before work begins.

Bosses at St Mary’s Hospital in London, which has been given a prospective start date of 2035 to 2038, have warned the chances of some parts of the estate closing due to patient safety concerns were “increasing day by day” as supplies of electricity, heating and water could not be guaranteed.

“We are now providing care in some buildings which are over 180 years old,” chief executive Prof Tim Orchard told the BBC.

Meanwhile, Sam Higginson, the chief executive of Royal Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, says he is “deeply disappointed” that the redevelopment of his North Devon District Hospital may have to wait until 2038.

“For us that’s too far in the future,” he says. “There is a limit how long we can run that infrastructure for and we are right at that limit.”

He says he would be seeking money from NHS England and the government to try to keep the operating theatres and A&E running as best they can, warning otherwise the drive to tackle the hospital waiting list could be hit.

The government has said it is committed to the projects. But, as they will all now slip into the next Parliament and, as such, there is no money yet committed to cover the costs, there is real concern behind the scenes about whether this timetable can even be kept to.

“They’ve kicked us all into the long grass,” says one NHS leader, who wished to remain anonymous. “A commitment to do something in 10 years’ time is almost meaningless.”

Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, says he understands such concerns, adding: “They feel let down.”

And he says the government will need to take into account how compromised the NHS leaders are with their dilapidated estates when it comes to judging their performance in the coming years.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has firmly laid the blame at the Tories door, accusing them of leaving an “unfunded and undeliverable” hospital building programme for him to pick up.

This has been disputed by the Tories, who accused Labour of breaking promises and simply deciding not to prioritise the schemes.

The Liberal Democrats believe both parties have a case to answer. Health and care spokeswoman Helen Morgan says the public had been “led up the garden path” by the Tories, while accusing Labour of “dither and delay” and treating those affected with “complete disrespect” for trying to bury the news on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

But Siva Anandaciva, of the King’s Fund health think-tank, says the problems run far deeper than just these 18 delayed projects – and the others that have already been finished, started or approved for this decade.

He points out the backlog in repairs and maintenance across the entire NHS has been growing for years as capital spending budgets for buildings and equipment have been squeezed.

“The scale of the crumbling NHS estate is far wider than the rebuilds on the new hospital programme,” he says.

“Much of the mental health estate is some of the oldest within the NHS and it is estimated one in five GP premises pre-date when the NHS was formed in 1948.”

This lack of investment, he argues, is a “false economy” as it results in poorer patient care and hampers NHS productivity.

But it is not just the health service that is affected. A report published this week by the NAO pointed out other parts of the public sector are affected too, with school, court and prison buildings all struggling with maintenance backlogs too.

The sewage leaks and equipment failures at the likes of the Princess Alexandra Hospital and other sites awaiting rebuilds are just the tip of the iceberg it seems.

Data visualisation by Hannah Karpel