King's Lynn Queen Elizabeth Hospital lessons must be learned

Bosses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn are hopeful the dilapidated site will be added to a government scheme to build 40 new hospitals nationwide, with a decision expected imminently.

However, with health secretary Steve Barclay indicating the new sites will be built to a "nationally-standardised designs" there are fears over what a potential new build could look like.

The approach could see new hospitals built to an identikit design, rather than adapting plans to the needs and surroundings of the area.

Government officials believe this will be more cost-efficient, amid concerns that recent new-builds ended up over-budget and were completed late.

But some experts worry this could see the specific needs of hospital communities overlooked and are urging the government to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.

Alex Stewart, chief executive of Healthwatch Norfolk, fears taking this approach could result in future generations ending up with the same problems again.

Some of the props supporting the roof at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn (Image: Chris Bishop)He said: "The creation of a bespoke NHS building blueprint must not be done at the expense of ensuring the structures fit the needs and demands of patient care for the area they cover.

"Any design and construction must also ensure there is a long working life for the finished building so future generations of patients and staff are not facing the same situation experienced by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with hundreds of props holding the building up.

"Lessons must be learned so that other communities and future generations are not having to treat and be treated in similar conditions."

Alex Stewart, chief executive of Healthwatch Norfolk (Image: Archant)

The QEH, which needs more than 3,000 props to prevent its roof from collapsing, was missed off the list of 40 new builds announced three years ago.

But hopes are high that the 500-bed hospital will be one of eight further new builds set to be agreed.

On Tuesday, Mr Barclay told MPs solving the issues of so-called RAAC hospitals - named after the reinforced concrete planks they were built from in the late 1970s and early 1980s to save costs - remained his number one priority.

The QEH, which opened in 1980, was built with an expected working life of 30 years but is still in operation more than four decades later.

A model of the proposed new hospital to replace the crumbling QEH, with the main building shown in pink (Image: Chris Bishop)

Plans for an £862m replacement for the QEH, on what is currently the car park, have been drawn up and a business case submitted to the government. 

But earlier, Mr Barclay said he also wanted to use the hospital building programme to "think differently about how we approach the NHS estate".

He told a health leaders' conference nine of the last 10 hospitals built in England were over time and over budget and there was an urgent need to change how NHS buildings are constructed in the future.

He added: "This means moving away from bespoke designs by local trusts and instead having national standardised designs built through modern methods of construction, where the construction time on site is much quicker, the operational performance is delivered quicker, and the environmental features are better integrated into the build."

Critics, however, feel this harks back to the same approach which led to the use of the controversial concrete planks being used for the King's Lynn site.