NHS: Photos show ‘crumbling’, abandoned hospital rooms

Inside one of Nottingham’s busiest hospitals stands an abandoned clinic where plaster is peeling off the walls, ceilings have caved in and standing water floods the corridor.

“This is what can happen when infrastructure issues are left untreated,” said head of estates Michael Soroka during a visit by the BBC.

Other hospital employees said they were concerned other wards could “follow the same fate” as plans to rebuild and improve Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) and City Hospital were delayed until 2037 at the earliest by the government.

The Department for Health and Social Care said the government inherited a “crumbling NHS” and the new timeline was “realistic and deliverable”.

The former pain clinic in the QMC’s south block previously saw hundreds of patients per year.

It had fewer than a dozen rooms and treated people with both neurological and physical pain as part of an outpatient service.

Over time, poor infrastructure, including old pipes leaking in the mechanical room above, escalated to a point where the clinic had multiple safety hazards and became unusable.

It has been abandoned for the last seven years.

Mr Soroka, 48, who is based at the QMC, described the state of the former unit as “shameful”.

He said: “It is embarrassing to see the state the clinic is in now. Catastrophic leaks caused this and it became impossible to maintain.

“We need new pipes badly. Pipe and ventilation issues impact every floor.”

The pipework in the hospital was built in 1976 and most of the site’s “plant rooms” share the same pipework as the former pain clinic.

Plant rooms store equipment, like pipes, that keep the building running safely.

Mr Sokora added: “The equipment in our plant rooms is coming towards the end its life.

“This could cause further leaks if it isn’t replaced soon enough.

“We are full here at the QMC. Space is a premium, so it’s a real shame that this clinic is now unusable.”

The lack of space at the hospital has become more apparent in recent years.

In winter 2023, patients “lined corridors” as the hospital ran out of bed space in its A&E department.

The QMC is also experiencing problems on wards that currently treat patients.

Mr Soroka said: “We do have leaks on some wards – one on the F floor floods regularly.

“Any issues are patched up quickly to ensure they are safe for patients and staff, but the root problems aren’t addressed.

“The team here keeps the hospital running on the face of it, but behind the scenes, behind closed doors, we are struggling.”

Improving the pipe works and general maintenance is part of the hospital’s rebuilding plan, but Mr Soroka fears waiting over a decade for improvements is “too long”.

At the trust’s City Hospital, two wings of the St Francis building, dating back to the 1900s, are also abandoned.

The space was formerly patient wards and more recently became finance offices, but they are now empty.

Leaks in the roof and a failure of the steam system meant it became “uneconomical” to keep repairing the space.

A spokesperson for Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, which runs the QMC and City Hospital, said: “The building itself can withstand the test of time, and with proper investment could become an excellent space for us to use.”

The QMC and City Hospital were included in the Conservative government pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030.

The Nottingham Hospitals Rebuild project, called Tomorrow’s NUH, was included in the plans and expected to cost about £2bn.

Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting declared last month work will not commence until 2037.

The plans for 40 new hospitals by 2030 were a Conservative election promise, he said, adding they were not affordable.

In a statement, NUH said it was “very disappointed” to hear work had been pushed back.

Its plans included a new centre for women, children and families, and a bespoke cancer care building.

Phil Britt, director of major programmes at NUH, which includes Tomorrow’s NUH, said: “We spent years developing these plans because we want to make great changes to the hospital.

“This clinic is an extreme example of what can happen, and we had to make the difficult choice to close it and put our resources elsewhere.

“There is an increasing likelihood that we’ll see more places like this over the next decade if nothing is done.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The New Hospital Programme was on a completely unrealistic timeframe and was unfunded.

“We have now set out a timeline that’s both realistic and deliverable, alongside £1bn to address the backlog of critical NHS maintenance and repairs to help ensure hospitals are safe and sustainable.”