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BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
London hospital buildings in unacceptable state
Looking around the dilapidated wards of Hillingdon Hospital in north-west London, Health minister Karin Smyth says she "knows people deserve better services"."I'm from Hillingdon, so I really do understand the difficulties that staff are working in here," she told BBC was the only London trust to get the go-ahead for a new hospital as part of the current New Hospital Programme. Ms Smyth said the state of hospital buildings across London was "unacceptable".London's hospitals have been given about £160m of emergency cash from an Estates Safety Fund to try to keep them running until they can be replaced, but trusts say the money is not enough to cover the repairs needed. Ms Smyth said: "We know there's been disappointment, a lot of delays, but this new government has got on with the review - we want to see this got on with now."She added: "When we came in as a new government last July, there wasn't funding for any of these schemes beyond March."We understand the disappointment in other communities - but we have sought to put this programme now on a firm financial footing for the first time. That didn't happen before." Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, east London, is not dissimilar to DeGaris, the chief executive of Barts Health NHS Trust, described it as having "really substandard facilities".It was due to be rebuilt by 2026, but following a review of the New Hospitals Programme, the work has been delayed. Now the only part to be rebuilt before 2033 is the car trust estimates the delays to rebuilding the hospital will cost £200m. At St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, walls are crumbling around government has delayed the building of a new hospital there until 2035. In the meantime, the hospital's trust has been given £25m from the government for repairs to energy systems, electrical systems, water systems, ventilation systems, fire safety works and drainage works. But this must be shared between St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals. The trust estimates it will spend over £100m on repairs at St Mary's Hospital alone until it is rebuilt. St Helier Hospital, in south London, was given the go-ahead for a new hospital in 2020, but that has now been delayed until 2033. The hospital, which opened in 1941, recently reported having to knock down a ward due to sinking foundations and windows falling trust that runs it, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Our ageing hospitals are deteriorating faster than we can fix them."It estimates the costs of the delays to upgrades needed to both St Helier, and Epsom hospitals will amount to an additional £150m a has been given £12m as part of the Estates Safety Fund. Last month, Ken Welch, former director of facilities, estates and supplies at St Helier Hospital, said the condition of the buildings raised serious concerns."I've seen a lot in 30 years working in the NHS, but the condition of the buildings at St Helier is among the worst," he said."I'm seriously concerned about the risk of fire, particularly with the growing use of corridor care. But most of all, I'm worried about the safety of the patients."
Times
31-05-2025
- General
- Times
The NHS has a vaccine problem: staff don't want the jab
Doctors, nurses and other frontline NHS staff are shunning the flu vaccine in ever-greater numbers, with almost nine in ten staff at one of England's largest hospital trusts unvaccinated last winter. Barts Health Trust, which has more than 18,750 staff working in six hospitals in east London, had the worst results in England, managing only 12.9 per cent, or 2,416, frontline staff getting vaccinated. This includes nurses and doctors working at the Royal London in Whitechapel, a major trauma centre treating some of the most seriously injured and sick patients in the capital. The dire take-up is symptomatic of a problem on NHS wards across England. New data shows the number of NHS staff getting the seasonal flu vaccine over winter has crashed to 37.5 per cent — its lowest level in almost 15 years. This year's drop of 5.3 percentage points is the fourth consecutive year that vaccination rates have fallen since the pandemic. The flu vaccine is essential to prevent widespread sickness in hospitals. A bad flu season can lead to tens of thousands of deaths, particularly in elderly patients and those already ill with other conditions. More than 22,500 excess deaths were linked to flu in the winter of 2017-18. An outbreak can also lead to staff shortages, cancelled operations and put patients at risk of being infected by staff who are meant to be caring for them. The rapid fall is another sign of the wider phenomenon of 'vaccine fatigue' that is being blamed for a rapid decline in vaccinations, including those designed to protect children from deadly diseases such as measles. The UK Health Security Agency said there was also complacency about the threat of some diseases and the agency was working to make sure parents were educated about the risks of not vaccinating their children. Last week, it emerged efforts to eradicate cervical cancer in England by 2040 were at risk of being derailed because of a crash of 17 percentage points in children getting vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV. 'The number of NHS staff getting vaccinated is very low, it is worrying,' said Heidi Larson, a professor of anthropology and founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It tracks public sentiment towards vaccines and has been running since 2010. • Pharmacies running out of flu vaccine as NHS restricts free jabs Larson said vaccine fatigue and wider falls in vaccination rates were being seen globally but particularly in Europe and western nations. 'It's a mix of things going on,' she said. Since the pandemic, people had reacted against a sense of being controlled and forced to have jabs. 'A lot of people were kind of bullied, almost, in a positive sense, to get the first Covid dose in the UK. It was very successful but there was this sense of control and people have said in our studies they resented taking that vaccine. Some people, maybe subconsciously, are angry about having been pushed into taking them. They feel enough is enough towards vaccines. What I see is a sort of societal PTSD and within that some people are now saying they won't get vaccinated as a reaction.' The pandemic had also made more people aware of vaccines and the science behind them and prompted more people to go online where, Larson said, they were confronted by 'toxic information'. Urgent action was needed to reverse the decline but she warned the NHS and government against a 'top-down command and control campaign', which could make matters worse. Instead, more nuanced conversations using peer influencers and community leaders were needed. According to the UK Health Security Agency's official statistics, released last month, 37.8 per cent of frontline health workers across hospitals and GP practices had a flu vaccination between September and February. This is the lowest since 2010-11 when 35 per cent of staff were vaccinated. • Treat the sickest and forget targets, Wes Streeting tells NHS GP surgeries managed more vaccinations — with 52 per cent of staff getting the jab — but this was down 10 per cent on the year before. Among staff groups, doctors were the most vaccinated but still achieved only 42 per cent. Only 38 per cent of nurses had the vaccine and the lowest level was among support staff, with 34 per cent. During the winter, almost 75 per cent of over-65s had a flu vaccine. The number of people with longer-term health conditions being vaccinated fell to 40 per cent. Similar falls were seen in primary school children and toddlers but coverage among secondary school children hit almost 45 per cent — the highest yet. More than 7,750 deaths were linked to flu in 2024-25, double the number the year before. London, as a region, had the lowest vaccination rate at 31 per cent but this was more than double the performance of Barts Health Trust. One senior consultant at Barts Health Trust, who had the jab, said they were shocked at the results and blamed apathy by some staff. They said: 'I had mine from a vaccine champion who visited different clinical areas to vaccinate staff.' Managers needed to do better, they said, adding: 'They should be spending summer finding out why staff didn't get it, rather than just doing the same again next winter.' Caroline Alexander, chief nurse at Barts, said: 'We understand that vaccine fatigue and hesitancy is a real concern for staff. While this challenge is not new and was heightened during the pandemic, we have been actively working to address it through a targeted communications campaign in collaboration with NHS England aimed at dispelling myths and building trust around vaccines.' She said the trust had offered mobile clinics and drop-in sessions in hospitals and sent trained vaccinators to wards and departments. Before next winter the trust would be highlighting the dangers of not having the flu vaccine. The best-performing trust was South East Coast Ambulance Trust, which managed a vaccination rate of 74 per cent. A spokesman there said it had a proactive campaign with vaccinators visiting workplaces with incentives such as 'free coffee for a jab'. It also used real-time data to track who had been jabbed to help target staff and teams with low uptake levels. Other problems include hesitancy by black and minority ethnic staff and communities towards vaccines. The NHS has also scrapped payments made to hospitals for encouraging more staff to have jabs. • Combined flu and Covid vaccine could be ready by this winter Those eligible for a free jab include all over-65s and any adult with specific risk factors such as diabetes. Pregnant women are also eligible along with schoolchildren and residents in care homes. The jabs are changed each year to reflect which viruses are dominant. This year the vaccine protected against four types of influenza. A vaccine cannot give you flu and is generally considered safe and effective. People can suffer mild reactions and side-effects but serious complications are extremely rare. The NHS has included messages on staff pay slips to try to increase vaccinations as well as working with medical colleges to design better messaging for staff groups. Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, said: 'NHS trusts have a mandatory obligation under the NHS standard contract to make a flu vaccine offer to 100 per cent of their frontline staff every year.'
