King's Lynn: Matt Hancock 'looking closely' at propped-up hospital

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is "looking very closely" at the need to rebuild a hospital propped up with 194 supports.

The roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King's Lynn, Norfolk, poses a "direct risk to the life and safety of patients", board papers said.

Mr Hancock said he could "see the case" for it being among eight new hospitals.

"I am talking to the hospital trust and North West Norfolk MP James Wild about its place on that list," he added.

The QEH was not selected as one of 40 hospitals included in a £3.7bn building package announced by the government in October last year.

Asked why the West Suffolk Hospital was being replaced, ahead of the QEH, Mr Hancock said the issue there had been "more advanced" when a decision was taken last year.

"We have the same problem at the West Suffolk Hospital and at King's Lynn, which is a particular type of building back in the 60s and 70s, which is now coming to the end of its life," he told the BBC.

"We're committed to replacing the hospital in West Suffolk, and there are challenges at the hospital in King's Lynn, I know that.

"We are making the assessment across the country which are the eight most pressing schemes, and [will] then come to a conclusion in the months ahead."

Asked about the urgent need for action at the QEH, given the safety risk, he added: "This is hundreds of millions of pounds to build a new hospital, so it's something that we need to get right, but it's something that's very much on my agenda.

"I am looking very closely at the case in King's Lynn."

In April, the government said the hospital had been given "over £20m to directly address the most immediate issues".

In a letter, leaked to the BBC at the time, its deputy chief executive Laura Skaife-Knight said "more than short-term fixes are needed".

She told governors that the hospital trust was doing "all it can" to secure funding for a new hospital in King's Lynn.

"We know that there will be funding to build a further eight new or part-new hospitals by 2030 and that these will be announced in autumn 2021," she wrote in the letter.

"QEH is doing all it can to position the trust to be one of these further eight hospitals."

A risk register within a board meeting agenda last month assessed the state of the building.

It said: "There is a direct risk of life and safety to patients, visitors and staff of the trust due to the potential of catastrophic failure of the roof structure due to structural deficiencies."

It said this was because the pre-cast concrete construction of the building was 40 years old, despite only being built to last 25 years, and rated the risk as "very high/extreme".

The hospital has been approached for comment.

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