North Tees Hospital has 10 years left, boss warns

A crumbling hospital built in the 1960s has only 10 years left before a new one will be needed, a health boss has warned.

Staff at the University of North Tees Hospital in Stockton said it was "dingy and cluttered" and moving patients was a "daily challenge".

It also costs £8m a year for running repairs including roof leaks.

Julie Gillon, chief executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust, said a new hospital was needed.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was planning to build eight new hospitals nationwide and a selection process would begin later this year.

It also said it was giving the North Tees trust £3m to spend on A&E upgrades as well as £3.5m to address backlog maintenance.

North Tees hospital opened in the 1960s and was considered "state of the art" at the time.

Ms Gillon said: "We know we only have a 10-year lifespan left in terms of the building's concrete structure and infrastructure.

"Our staff want to work in a new build, an airy, cosmetically-pleasing building.

"But they also want to work in a safe space and to achieve that we need a new build."

Hospital matron Alison McCullagh said: "To get patients to and from areas we have to go around equipment all the time.

"We've got trollies in corridors that should not really be there. It's a day-to-day challenge getting from A to B safely."

The trust's director of finance Neil Atkinson said: "The hospital is very dingy and cluttered and its look doesn't make a great impression for patients.

"We also have to put aside a lot of money for repairs, in the last few weeks we've had to fix a lot of roofing because we've had floods. This takes money away from frontline services."

Plans to build a so-called "super-hospital" for the area were mooted more than 20 years ago.

However, the project for the £460m 660-bed hospital at Wynyard Park, near Stockton, was axed in 2010 by the-then Liberal Democrat Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander because it was not "affordable".

It would have replaced hospital buildings in Stockton and Hartlepool.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: "Patient safety is our top priority and we are investing record sums to upgrade the NHS's physical infrastructure so we can provide the best possible quality of care.

"We recently opened a selection process to identify a further eight potential new hospitals as part of the biggest hospital building programme in a generation and initial applications are due by 9 September 2021."

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