Some 210 props are now holding up the roof of a crumbling Norfolk hospital.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn was not included in the list of 40 hospitals given the go-ahead to be rebuilt or refurbished which was announced last autumn.
It now hopes to be included in a further eight schemes due to be announced in November.
The hospital's risk register warns the roof poses "a direct risk to life and patients, visitors and staff".
The EDP understands the QEH was one of four which took part in a planning exercise last year, which considered the impact of a major structural failure in an East Anglian hospital.
A BBC report today said a "major casualty plan" would be invoked in the event of part of a hospital collapsing, with patients transferred to other hospitals
It hospital was built on Lynn's Gayton Road using reinforced concrete planks with an expected lifespan of 30 years, but is still being use more than four decades later.
The James Paget Hospital, at Gorleston; the West Suffolk, at Bury St Edmunds and the Hinchinbrooke Hospital, at Huntingdon, were all built around the same time, using the same materials.
The QEH has been given £20m by central government to shore up its roof and create so-called decant wards and theatres, where patients can be moved and operations carried out in the event of a collapse.
Health minister Ed Argar has said safety will be one of the considerations used to select the further eight new hospital schemes.
No limit has currently been placed on the amount of money trusts can bid for, with a new QEH estimated at around £650m.
Alost 8,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org launched by the EDP at https://www.change.org/p/build-a-new-hospital-for-king-s-lynn.
A separate petition launched by Love West Norfolk will attract a response from government if it reaches 10,000 signatures here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/590390.
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