Inside the hospital deemed 'not fit for purpose'
BBCA 150-year-old NHS community hospital could close because its buildings are not "fit for purpose" and the BBC has been inside to see the issues.
The number of stroke rehabilitation beds was reduced from 22 to 16 at St Peter's in Maldon a decade ago after an assessment on the condition of the first and second floors meant weight restrictions were introduced.
Kirthivasan Ramanathan, stroke consultant, said "patient complexity and the requirement for moving heavy patients makes it important our services and locations are fit for purpose".
The stroke rehabilitation unit was moved temporarily to Brentwood Community Hospital in 2023. Now the local NHS would like to make that move permanent.
Dr Matthew Sweeting, medical director for Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: "Staff battle on a daily basis with the challenges of an 1870s building, corridor space, weight restrictions and damp coming through the ceilings."
On the first floor of the currently closed stroke rehabilitation unit, cracks could be seen in the walls caused by leaking rain water from the roof.
Water damage on the ground floor was also visible. Towels had been stuffed in old windows to stop them rattling.
The weight restrictions on the first and second floors were in place because it would be unsafe for heavy equipment and larger patients to be moved there.
A public consultation is under way as the ICB proposes to close the hospital as parts of it "are no longer safe for patients to stay in or staff to work in".
The ICB report said: "It would cost £18.7m to fix all the problems. That is more money than is available."
Two options are being considered by the ICB.
- Option A: All stroke rehab beds in Mid & South Essex, an area serving 1.2 million people, would all be in Brentwood, giving a total of 50 beds. Community care beds currently in Brentwood, would be available at other small hospitals.
- Option B: Brentwood has 25 stroke rehab beds, with 22 in Rochford. Community care beds would be at sites across the area, apart from Maldon.
Mr Ramanathan said the the proposals "offer us opportunity to develop centres of excellence".
About 500 people a year in Mid and South Essex need to stay in hospital for specialist stroke rehabilitation.
Clinicians prefer option A, but Brentwood & Ongar's Conservative MP Alex Burghart says he would back option B.
He says under that plan 25 community care beds which are "largely used by local people [will be] retained, and I would welcome the introduction of 25 new beds for post-stroke patients".
St Peter's sees about 300 patients a day with more than 80,000 appointments a year, according to the NHS.
Blood tests, X-rays, dermatology, maternity and orthopaedics are among the services provided at the hospital.
Maldon's Conservative MP Sir John Whittingdale says "re-provision" of services in his constituency "have got to be in place before we contemplate closing the existing hospital".
He is holding a public meeting at 19:00 GMT on Friday at the Plume Academy and expects several hundred people to attend.
Dr Sweeting said "our absolute commitment" was to keep outpatients and pre-and post-birth maternity services in Maldon and “there are sites identified".
The public consultation states "we are unlikely to find a single place where all these service can go together, which means different services would likely be in different buildings".
The report says orthopaedics, rheumatology, radiology and ultrasound need to be together and might be based outside of the Maldon district.
Braintree Community Hospital, 16 miles away, is an option.
St Peter's birthing unit moved to Braintree in August due to staffing and safety concerns.
Six births took place a month at the midwife-led unit when it was in Maldon. In Braintree there are currently an average of nine.
The consultation is proposing to make this move permanent.
Laura-Rose Thorogood, chairwoman of the Mid & South Essex Maternity Voices group, which represents mothers and staff, said: "A lot of people are quite upset and distressed at the fact that they can’t make use of the building."
She says St Peter's "holds a lot of memories - it’s really important for people in the community".
"However, knowing that the building isn’t fit for purpose, it’s really tangible that we need to have conversations with the trust," she said.
The consultation is running until 21 March and there are a series of public events.
If approved the changes to the stroke rehab and community beds could be in place by October, at the earliest.
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