Harlow: Urgent funding call to replace sewage leak hospital

Flooding in the basement is one of many incidents as the Princess Alexandra struggles with an ageing site

Worsening sewage leak problems have prompted calls for an urgent decision on funding to build a new hospital.

Managers at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, 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.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it was working with the trust on plans for a new hospital.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Liberal Democrats revealed reports of staff struggling with nausea and headaches, ceiling tiles falling into an operating theatre and toilet waste leaking into a waiting area.

It also found a "massive leak" in the hospital's acute medicine Charnley ward, which was "threatening the health and safety of staff, patients and relatives".

• Cost of delayed new hospital rises by £250m

• New hospital may not be built until 2028•

Michael Meredith, director of strategy and estates at the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT), said: "Sewage leaks occur across the site on a regular basis including below the ground, above the ground and in our basement.

"These are managed quickly and efficiently but they are unpleasant, especially where they occur in areas accessed by patients, our people or the public."

He added: "This is just one of the many reasons we need confirmation of the funding for our new hospital urgently.

"However, given the age and complexity of the estate and the delay in a decision around the funding for our new hospital, our backlog will continue to grow".

Plans have already been drawn up for a new hospital in Harlow

Work to replace the Princess Alexandra Hospital was meant to be completed by 2025 - but it has been delayed, with the price of steel being blamed for the projected cost rising by £250m.

'National scandal'

The new building was among the 40 new hospitals the government under Boris Johnson promised to build by 2030.

Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, said there was "no sign of the new hospitals the Conservatives promised".

"I'm really worried about the Princess Alexandra and all the hospitals in the East of England," he said.

"They've been promised funds by the Conservatives - those funds have not been spent and we're seeing the effect of that: crumbling hospitals and sewage leaks.

"It's disgusting, it's a national scandal".

A new hospital to replace the Princess Alexandra in Harlow may not be built until 2028

The Conservative MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, raised the hospital's sewage leak problems in Parliament back in 2018.

At the time, he said sewage had been 'flowing through the operating theatres'.

The National Audit Office is due to report its findings into the government's hospital building pledge.

A spokesman for the DHSC said: "While individual NHS organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates, we are investing record sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care - including £4.2bn this year and £8.4bn over the next two years.

"More widely, we have invested £3.7bn for the first four years of the New Hospital Programme and remain committed to all schemes that have been announced as part of it."