Patients evacuated after TWO ceilings collapse within days at crumbling Greater Manchester hospital

Patients were forced to be evacuated and scans cancelled after two ceilings collapsed within a day of one another at a crumbling Greater Manchester hospital.

Stepping Hill Hospital has suffered two ceiling collapses in recent weeks because of leaks within the heating system. The collapses came inside the radiology department and in the critical care unit, where seriously ill patients receive intensive and high-dependency treatment.

The Stockport hospital has long been struggling with its ageing buildings becoming increasingly decrepit, and the continued major structural concerns are being called ‘dangerous for both patients and staff’.

READ MORE: Greater Manchester hospital 'immediately' closes major department

The two ceiling collapses follow the 'immediate' complete closure of the hospital’s Outpatient B department in November, which the Manchester Evening News reported. The closure came because of a ‘significant deterioration of the structure of the building’, according to inspectors.

That outpatient unit is now only providing 51 per cent of the outpatient appointments it should. Some of the services that were provided in the Outpatient B unit are now operating at less than the previous capacity.

“A small number of services, including ophthalmology, are still to be found temporary homes due to the need to accommodate large pieces of equipment that are not easy to move,” said a report from Stockport NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, Karen James, to the most recent board meeting in April.

“Our estates team is prioritising efforts to find alternative accommodation for those services as well as permanent homes for the others as we move forward with the demolition of Outpatients B.”

The first partial ceiling collapse in recent weeks occurred on March 4 in the hospital’s radiology department because of a leak, which meant it had to cancel several scheduled procedures. The trust has not disclosed how many appointments were affected, the Guardian has reported.

The second collapse happened the very next day in its critical care unit, it has also been reported, where seriously ill patients receiving intensive and high-dependency care are treated.

Staff had to move quickly to get patients out of the 13-bed unit to ensure no one was hurt. Evacuated patients were initially cared for in some of Stepping Hill’s 20 operating theatres. Some were then transferred to a nearby hospital while repairs were carried out, the Guardian has also said.

Ms James told the board that, alongside the closure of the outpatient unit, ‘we have also suffered unexpected and unrelated ceiling collapses in our critical care unit and radiology department, caused by leaks from the heating system’. She added: “The critical care unit had to be evacuated but no patients suffered harm thanks to the prompt actions of our staff. The leak in the radiology department did cause the cancellation of some appointments.”

The chief executive also warned that the ‘estates problems are more frequently impacting our services … we are likely to experience more business continuity issues as the result of our ageing buildings’. Ms James suggested that making the repairs could be difficult as the trust will ‘have to be realistic about the amount of capital funding that is likely to be available in 2024-25 to maintain the current hospital buildings’.

“These reports from Stepping Hill are both shocking and depressing,” said Dr Rob Barnett, the chair of the British Medical Association’s north-west regional council, reported in the Guardian story. “That staff are working and seeing patients in these conditions is completely unacceptable.”

Tom Morrison, a local Liberal Democrat councillor, added: “Important operations are being postponed by weeks because the buildings are decaying.”

Stepping Hill has been crying out for more funding to repair the crumbling areas of the hospital, including applying to become one of the 40 ‘new hospitals’ which the then-Prime Minister promised in 2019 to build by 2030. That application, however, was rejected.

The Manchester Evening News has also reported how several hospitals in Greater Manchester, including Stepping Hill, have areas built with dangerous, crumbling RAAC concrete. And back in February, the M.E.N. shared how the cost of general acute hospital repairs backlogs at the Stockport hospital has risen 2.5 per cent from £52.5m to £53.9m in the last financial year, according to analysis of data released by NHS Digital.

The backlog of high-risk repair costs stands at £2.9m. In 2022-23, there were 73 ‘clinical service incidents caused by estates and infrastructure failure,’ an increase compared to 32 such incidents in 2021-22.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson, said: “Cheadle and Stockport residents deserve to be treated in a safe, clean, modern hospital. But, under this Conservative government, they are left with a local hospital that has become dangerous for both patients and staff.

“No patient should fear for their safety while receiving treatment in hospital. But, across the country, we are seeing NHS buildings crumbling and ceilings collapsing. It is downright irresponsible that the government has failed to address this situation. Rishi Sunak must provide urgent funding so that Stepping Hill hospital can make the repairs it needs.”

A Stockport NHS Trust spokesperson said: “Leaks are a relatively common occurrence across a large and diverse estate, made up of different aged buildings, infrastructure and condition. We regularly survey the estate to measure the condition and help us direct investment to the appropriate area. It is common for small repairs to convert into larger more complex work, up to and including roof replacement.”