Bulldozers move in on crumbling hospital

OUTPATIENTS DEPT CONDEMNED AFTER CEILING COLLAPSES

- HELENA VESTY

BRICKS strewn behind metal fences, men in hardhats ripping out wooden beams, bulldozers moving in on a hospital building.

Razing an outpatients department to the ground is a scene that doesn't make any sense to anyone who has found themselves sitting in A&E for hours, on a waiting list for months, or failing completely to get an NHS dentist appointment.

But this hospital has been crying out for money to fix its crumbling infrastructure for years - even before this outpatients building was deemed structurally unsafe by inspectors and the decision was made that it had to be pulled down.

In just four months, Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport has seen one of its major outpatients buildings condemned, followed by two 'unexpected and unrelated' ceilings collapsing in its radiology department and its critical care unit.

Those incidents have led to a serious dip in the capacity for outpatients appointments and the hospital's intensive care department being out of action for days.

Bulldozers moved in on the outpatients building last week. And hospital chiefs warn that the disruption and, now, very visible deterioration of its ageing buildings, will only continue.

Months of drama at Stepping HillBack in late November, the hospital's Outpatients B department was forced to completely close 'immediately after a 'significant deterioration of the structure of the building' according to inspectors.

Outpatient appointments were quickly relocated across the sprawling site, with new patients being redirected to their new clinic the day after the hospital announced it would be shutting down the unit.