Petition Launched to Save At Risk Frimley Park Hospital

Published on: 3 Sep, 2024
Updated on: 3 Sep, 2024

Frimley Park Hospital. Photo Google

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Patients and staff have stressed the need for a new Frimley Park Hospital due to potential safety issues and leaking buildings when it rains. Almost 9,000 people have signed a petition to “save” the hospital rebuild plan.

A cancer patient has called the treatment and care at Frimley Park Hospital “first class” and said the “staff deserve an environment that matches this level of care”. Marianne, who did not give her last name, said: “The potential safety issues over the deteriorating concrete are a major concern, and one that should not happen in a hospital.”

The Surrey hospital, made up of around 65 per cent unstable concrete, was granted funding for a replacement building through the previous government’s New Hospital Programme in May 2023. But in order to plug a £22 billion hole in public finance, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced at the end of July that she is reviewing the programme which could put Frimley Park at risk.

Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) was first discovered at Frimley Park Hospital in 2012. The current hospital has about 7,000 RAAC planks in key areas such as operating theatres, intensive care units, wards and corridors.

Brett Lee, Hospital Security. Photo: Frimley Park Hospital NHS Trust

Frimley Park Hospital is pursuing RAAC maintenance work to keep the hospital safe, but Senior Security Supervisor Brett Lee said: “All the banging and drilling where the builders are maintaining the RAAC areas doesn’t make for a relaxing environment for the patients.” Brett said when the weather has been bad, he has noticed “several areas where the rain has seeped through, making the site potentially dangerous for our patients”.

“From cradle to grave, hospitals play such a unique role in our lives,” said Ed McGuinness, founder of the ‘Save the new Frimley Park hospital build’ petition, “by keeping the hospital, the centre of the community, healthy and alive it supports everything else.”

Reaching nearly 9,000 signatures, the petition was launched to galvanise local and grassroot support for the new hospital to go ahead. Ed added he is doing a survey to find out why people use the service and what the most important departments are in the hospital.

“Not only does [Frimley] structurally need a new hospital, which is safe and in place long-term, it needs to serve an ever-expanding community as well,” the former Conservative candidate for Surrey Heath said. Comments from staff at the hospital have also said there is not much space around the patient areas when they are looking to move them.

Ed claimed it would be unacceptable and “detrimental to the long-term future of Surrey Heath” for the government to cancel Frimley’s part in the programme. An avid believer in the power of grassroot campaigns, Ed said he wants to present the petition and survey to the government to show the widespread community support for the new hospital project.

Around 54 hospitals were found to have RAAC in the country, but the severity of its condition differs. Frimley Park Hospital is just one of seven affected hospitals that was put on the new hospital programme to replace the building.

Work to build a new hospital is “continuing to progress at pace” while it is “working to understand” what the government’s review will mean for the hospital, according to a Frimley Park Hospital Trust spokesperson. The hospital is also continuing with its extensive RAAC maintenance programme to keep the hospital, patients and staff safe.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the previous government’s commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 is “undeliverable and unaffordable”. The funding allocated by the previous government runs out in March.

The spokesperson said: “We must reset the New Hospital Programme to put it on a sustainable footing, following persistent delays and cost overruns.” The Department of Health and Social Care is launching a full review of the programme to provide a “thorough, costed and realistic timeline for delivery”.

The SAVE the new Frimley Park hospital build petition can be found here.