A hospital where ‘everything cracks’ and ‘death trap’ ceilings leave ailing patients in fear has been ranked the ‘worst’ in the country.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, was this week branded the worst of 134 acute hospital trusts in England in damning government analysis, which was publicly revealed for the first time.
The hospital, which opened in 1980 and serves around 250,000 residents, uses thousands of props to keep it ceilings up and has one of the worst records for A&E and cancer treatment waits.
The trust was placed under special measures in 2018, with particular concern over maternity services, and only taken out four years later.
But patients continue to raise issues with their treatment, with one woman claiming she felt ‘dismissed’ after she had a miscarriage.
Emma Simmonds, 41, went to the hospital’s early pregnancy unit after bleeding at almost 11 weeks pregnant in 2023, but was told to return the next day, where she found out she had a miscarriage.
She said she has lost all faith in the hospital and will never go back.
Meanwhile, major delays to its redevelopment have left an ageing building with a poor ceiling.
A hospital where ‘everything cracks’ and ‘death trap’ ceilings leave ailing patients in fear has been ranked the ‘worst’ in the country
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, was this week branded the worst of 134 acute hospital trusts in England
Health secretary Wes Streeting claimed the move would ‘end the postcode lottery’ of care and pinpoint where urgent help is required
After warnings that it would be unsafe after 2030, the Government committed to rebuilding the hospital.
But the start date for construction, originally set for 2025 and costing an estimated £862million, has been pushed back up to three years, with completion not expected until 2032.
It means patients have to make do with crumbling ceilings.
Around 8,600 props are used to hold up ceilings with current material, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), only lasting 40 years before breaking down.
RAAC was widely used in roofing between the 1950s and 1990s and is weaker than concrete.
Multiple schools with RAAC have had to close buildings amid fears ceilings might collapse.
‘The words that one of our patients used is that they were lying under a death trap,’ Phulmattie Mohan, a hospital matron, told ITV.
Specialist teams checked on weak spots in the ceiling daily, in 2022, while buckets were placed under the leaking roof to catch water.
A year earlier, an intensive care was evacuated because of concerns the roof would collapse. The critical care unit remained closed for around three weeks.
Patients have also described hearing cracking sounds from creaky roofs during overnight stays.
Former patient Desmond Bilverstone said: ‘They make a hell of a lot of crackling noises.
‘At night time you can hear it and you think what’s going on next? Everything cracks around here.’
Queen Elizabeth had one of the poorest ratings for A&E nationwide.
Under NHS guidelines, 95 per cent of patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
But just 52.1 per cent were seen within four hours in July, latest data available shows.
One patient, Sue Grey, told The Sun: ‘The A&E just stinks. But they’re dumped in a croaky old hospital with no air conditioning, and it’s held up by god knows what for however long it can be.
‘The conditions now are just awful.
Local residents are keen to stress that hard working staff are not at fault for the struggling hospital, rather mismanagement and poor funding.
In November, the hospital closed 60 of 250 beds to try and make a saving of £5.5m, with money used to fund care in the community instead.
Simon Illingworth, the hospital’s former chief operating officer, was instructed to find £29.5m of savings in the 2024 to 2025 financial year, the second highest in the country, according to the Health Service Journal.
On Tuesday, the Government publicly released rankings for hospitals, ambulance services and mental health providers, allowing patients to see which are giving sub-standard treatment.
Health secretary Wes Streeting claimed the move would ‘end the postcode lottery’ of care and pinpoint where urgent help is required.
‘Patients know when local services aren’t up to scratch, and they want to see an end to the postcode lottery,’ he said.
The rankings, which score NHS trusts on seven different areas including waiting times for operations, cancer treatment, time spent in A&E and ambulance response times, show 107 of 134 falling into tier three or four, meaning they are the ‘most challenged’.
Just 27 are rated in the top two tiers.
Latest data at Queen Elizabeth shows that only 53.4 per cent of newly-diagnosed cancer patients referred for urgent treatment were also seen within two months—the target is 85 per cent.
Patients have also described hearing cracking sounds from creaky roofs during overnight stays. (File image)
Meanwhile, only 86.9 per cent of patients started treatment within 31 days of being booked in June, below the goal of 96 per cent.
The health service target of telling at least 75 per cent of patients with suspected cancer they do or don’t have the disease equally wasn’t met at 70 per cent.
After its latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection last year, the regulator rated Queen Elizabeth as ‘requires improvement’, citing issues with surgery, end of life care and outpatient care.
The Daily Mail has contacted Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn Hospital for comment.
Following the government’s ranking, the hospital’s interim executive managing director Chris Brown said he was sorry it had ‘fallen short’, and added ‘immediate steps are being taken to address the issues’.
‘Our patients deserve the highest standards of care, and we are sorry that in some of our performance areas, as reported in the National Oversight Framework data, we have fallen short,’ he said.
‘Immediate steps are being taken to address the issues. We are working closely within our newly formed Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group, as well as with NHS England and regulators to deliver urgent improvements.
‘We recognise and take very seriously any concerns raised about The Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
‘Our staff work tirelessly under very challenging circumstances, and we are committed to supporting them as we make the necessary changes.
Paul Brooks, Director of Estates and Facilities at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital added: ‘We are in the fifth year of a Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) rolling safety programme to create a steel support structure across our main hospital building.
We currently have 8,598 steel and timber support props in 56 areas of the hospital. As a RAAC Trust the QEH has been prioritised for rebuild by the Government’s New Hospital Programme. The New QEH is currently in the design phase and is set to open to patients in 2032.’