An investigation by The Times newspaper has revealed that some UK hospitals are in such a poor state of repair, patients lives are at an increased risk.
Reporters found incidents of ceiling collapses and power cuts disrupting surgeries. Some hospitals were found to have rat infestations and rooms overflowing with raw sewage.
According to The Times:
Patients’ lives are at risk because NHS hospitals have been allowed to crumble into disrepair, with ceilings collapsing and power cuts disrupting surgery.
The number of clinical incidents linked to the failure to repair old buildings and faulty equipment has tripled in the past five years, an investigation by The Times found.
Hundreds of vital NHS operations and appointments are being cancelled as a result of outdated infrastructure, undermining attempts by doctors to tackle record waiting lists.
Recent incidents include an unconscious patient on a ventilator being trapped in a broken lift for 35 minutes and power running out as a patient lay in an operating theatre.
Freedom of information requests sent to NHS trusts in England also revealed dozens of cases of ceilings collapsing at hospitals over the past three years.
These include a “massive leak” of roof water into a unit for newborn babies, and water pouring through the ceiling on to bodies in a hospital mortuary.
Poor temperature control means some patients have had to “sleep in hats and gloves” on wards, while doctors have recorded some incidents as “a patient death waiting to happen”.
On Saturday, April 23, a five-hour power cut at the Royal London Hospital in east London led to the cancellation of operations including two lifesaving kidney transplants, and meant women giving birth had to be transferred to different maternity units in the backs of taxis.
Hospitals have also recorded hundreds of rat and pest infestations, and some rooms containing patients have been left “overflowing with raw sewage”.
Official figures highlight how the crumbling NHS estate — some of which dates back to the Victorian era — does “not meet the demands of a modern health service”.
Last year the NHS recorded 6,812 clinical service incidents related to estate and infrastructure failings, the highest figure on record and up from 2,338 in 2016-17…
..Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust health think tank, said that without urgent investment in new equipment and hospital infrastructure the waiting list for routine operations and scans, currently at 6.2 million, would continue to spiral.
He said: “Every year the maintenance backlog gets worse and the impact on safety increases. Hospitals are having to patch things up and use temporary accommodation.
