King's Lynn Queen Elizabeth Hospital hospital adds more props to hold up roof

A NHS hospital has been continuing to add to the more than 200 temporary props holding up its structurally deficient roof.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, was built in the 1960s and requires an urgent rebuild.

Board papers earlier this year said the roof posed a "direct risk to the life and safety of patients".

North West Norfolk MP James Wild said there was "a compelling case" for the hospital to be rebuilt.

The Conservative told the Commons on Tuesday it should be one of the eight new hospitals the government have pledged to build by 2030 that have yet to be identified.

He asked the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke whether he agreed "it's far better to have a properly funded new hospital using modern methods of construction rather than it being an unplanned cost with emergency funding constantly being needed to prop up this failing building?".

Mr Clarke responded the process of selection for the remaining eight hospitals was "being led by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and will be based on a range of criteria including clinical need and deliverability".

The hospital's trust submitted two expressions of interest to the DHSC in September, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In October, the hospital installed two more temporary props with steel and wood supports, one in a corridor and one in a store room.

It brought the total number of props and temporary supports in place to 213 across 56 areas of the hospital, with a survey of the roof 79% complete.

Works on new facilities have begun, using a £20.6m emergency national capital investment given to the hospital by the government, including a new £12.5m endoscopy unit.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]