'We need £70m to maintain Harlow's hospital,' says chief executive

BBC News

20-05-2025

The boss of one of Essex's main NHS hospitals has said it needed "an additional £70m over the next 10 years" to maintain "key services that are deteriorating".Thom Lafferty, chief executive of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow said there was "an urgent need" for emergency capital funding.Harlow is due to have a new hospital built from 2032 and it is expected to take another five years before it is ready to receive patients.The Department of Health and Social Care said "we have put the New Hospital Programme on a sustainable and realistic footing".
The BBC was given access to Princess Alexandra to see how the 70-year-old estate and its buildings function.On a warm, sunny day in May, A&E was full. The four resuscitation bays were full all morning. There were patients waiting on trollies in the corridor.
Phillip Clarke needed paramedics to help his grandson get him off the floor after he had had a fall. The 71-year-old from Harlow is matter-of-fact about waiting on a trolley in a corridor: "It's one of them things you've got to do. It's just my arthritis killing me".There are works under way to open more bays next to the emergency department.If Princess Alexandra received emergency capital funding, money would go to maternity services which Mr Lafferty said was "really struggling"."We had maternity theatres closed a couple of weeks that severely impacted our operational services. The basics like even maternity toilets have been out of use a lot because of a historic drainage issue," he said.
Walking through the corridors of the emergency department, the hospital's chief operating officer Stephanie Lawton said the size of the hospital was having an impact."Our space is really constrained. It was built many years ago for a smaller population; the population has grown and increased the demand on our services," she said. "Our number of cubicles hasn't really changed over many years but yet our volume of patients has increased." The A&E was designed for 250 patients a day but often more than 450 come through the doors at Princess Alexandra. About 60% of patients come from Essex and 40% from Hertfordshire.
There are parts of the hospital no longer in use. Hardev Sagoo, who maintains the 70-year-old hospital estate, said: "There are at least two operating theatres that have been out of action for a number of years because we don't have the funds to bring them up to standard."In the bowels of the hospital there are three sewage leaks a week where a lot of the pipe work and electrics date back to the 1960s. Mr Sagoo said the hospital's "life has expired".
Plans for the new Princess Alexandra Hospital include single rooms with en suites. Presently, on Fleming Ward there are two bathrooms for 27 patients."It's a bit difficult when you want to go to the loo because there aren't many toilets," said Helen Puckett, 68, from Hertford.She is likely to be in hospital for about month to have a valve replaced in her heart."There's a shower that is freezing old. There is a shower that is nice and warm, but obviously everyone wants to get in there," she said.The hospital said its existing funding and income comprises:a £50m annual "core allocation" for its "business as usual" capital programme£450m revenue this year from the NHS to treat patientsMr Lafferty said the extra £70m would "make sure our hospital services are functional".A DHSC spokesperson said "over £1bn has been set aside to make inroads into the backlog of critical maintenance and repairs, safety and upgrades across the NHS estate". The government said "hospitals including Princess Alexandra will receive funding when necessary" but did not comment on the specific request for £70m.
Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.