Princess Alexandra Hospital: Urgent funding call to replace sewage leaks at Harlow’s hospital
Health / Fri 17th Feb 2023 am28 07:51am
WORSENING sewage leak problems have prompted calls for an urgent decision on funding to build a new hospital reports the BBC.
Managers at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, said a growing maintenance backlog is affecting services.
More than 40 leaks across the hospital estate were recorded in 2022 with around half classed as unsafe.
Click below for the full story.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64582018
Neil Warner Baker
2023-02-17 08:39:49
It does make me chuckle when PAH is described as an aging building! The oldest parts...what 60 years old, the newest...perhaps 2 or 3 years...with that kinda prognosis the whole town and all the privately owned homes would need knocking down. How old is Saint Thomas's, Saint Mary's... Bartholomews..etc. This is a case of poor Facilities Management and underfunding..The case for building a new Hospital is more about Developers creating a massive prime brownfield investment and us losing more of our Greenbelt
Mark
2023-02-17 09:00:58
Surely this doesn't matter any longer as we can all go the the brand new hospital our MP has been promising for years? Oh that right, the new hospital is another broken promise from Robert Halfon.
Jean
2023-02-17 10:05:57
I mentioned the fact London is full of OLD buildings but they preserve those. It's just excuse after excuse. I also suggested they reinstate A+E departments at surrounding hospitals even if it was for minor problems. While all the faffing around continues the cost is increasing. We need a bigger hospital+it makes sense to expand the current one. The new build will just give someone a smug look on their face where at the moment there's egg.
David Vincent
2023-02-17 10:10:02
Try building on the existing site with knackered sewers and see how that goes. A bit sticky and smelly I would say.
Jean
2023-02-17 11:47:36
Definitely but it would be renewed if it became land for building houses.
Dan
2023-02-17 13:09:17
I 100% agree with you Neil Warner Baker – Whether the maintain and develop the current site in the centre of the town or build a brand new hospital in next to the M11 patient outcomes will always less positive than in the London Hospital or Addenbrookes. Covid was a prime example – You had a much lower chance of coming out alive if you were taken into Harlow Hospital than one of the London teaching hospital – In fact the mortality rate was higher than most hospitals around here. Let’s face it – If you are a doctor at the top of your game, you are never going to choose Harlow as a place to work. Talent isn’t going to come to Harlow, shiny new hospital or whatever. Better to spent the money on decent levels of nursing care and fair pay for nurses and some technology that allows the top doctors in London oversight of the care of the people of Harlow.
Tony Durcan
2023-02-17 16:19:41
As a nurse can I please reassure readers that if you require hospital care then PAH dedicated staff will provide the best care possible. We have been living with these infrastructure failures for a long time and the former PM was given a tour of the challenges facing staff most days. Is very frustrating that we’re still waiting for confirmation of funding for a new PAH. To many false promises sadly. Whilst more expensive a new site remains the preferred choice. We have long waits in AE and broken pipes but the care ,compassion and commitment to the patients remains high at PAH. We may be stretched but we’re not broken, unlike the pipes
Nick
2023-02-17 16:19:57
Remember that the current hospital was designed with a much smaller catchment area than it now has to handle. It is not surprising that the likes of the services are put under pressure. If / when the new hospital is built, it could also include a "park and ride" carpark nearby for the "sustainable transport corridors". This would give hospital and shopping visitors a parking area, and generate income for the new transport system.
dan
2023-02-17 17:18:13
Nick are you suggesting that the hospital should be rebuilt in a location that would make a "park and ride" and "sustainable transport corridors" sustainable? Build a hospital in an inconvenient location so that the hospital users can subsidise an otherwise unviable transport package? I like your thinking!!
Tony Durcan
2023-02-17 17:39:07
This debate isn’t just about a building but mirrors how society and values have changed. We now deal with complex needs on a daily bases and you require modern infrastructure to support these changes. Only last year Southend could not pipe enough oxygen to some of the wards . It’s the dramatic underfunding and the lack of social care that is putting an impossible strain on the services. I was in Bury st edmunds and Kings lynn hospital and they have props holding the ceiling up. Build new is about building better. We just want a decision instead of make do.
Nostradamus
2023-02-17 20:58:37
Just get on with a new building on the current site, the main sewers are good, it's the quality of the building that matters. Keeping the hospital central rather than out of town is essential and the only reason that, like other hospitals, high rise buildings would make sense.
AJ
2023-02-17 21:17:09
It would help if they had the right amount of maintenance staff to tackle the problems but they don't.
Luke Burton
2023-02-18 10:35:49
No doubt you and your colleagues try to provide the best care possible. The only concern here is whether your ability to do that is being hampered by chronic underinvestment in maintenance. Thanks for all that you and your colleagues do.
Nicholas Taylor
2023-02-18 10:51:44
Building anything in the middle of a field must be more expensive than building on a site which already has all the services such as gas and water laid to it, let alone roads and drainage. The current site is set to see some 500 homes built on it if the hospital moves, any issues with sewers would be dealt with as a prelude to any construction of houses. The Tories dilly dallying has seen the cost of a new hospital rise by hundreds of millions of pounds. Just another broken election pledge like the one to stop development to the south and west of Harlow, to turn Harlow's cycle track system into the best in the world and Harlow into the best town in Britain.
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