The current Hillingdon Hospital is an old building with parts of the estate built in the 1940s as emergency wartime accommodation. Some of the older wards have become unsafe and have been closed to protect patients and staff.
80% of the hospital building will require major repair or replacement soon. Works have been undertaken and more are planned to enable us to continue providing services safely in the short term. However, if we were to undertake all the necessary repairs required, it would cost us over £200m (the second most expensive maintenance bill for a hospital trust in England) and many of the repairs would not be long term solutions.
For our patients, the maze-like layout of the current site makes it difficult to get around and the condition of buildings can make the experience of being in hospital more difficult. In 2018, The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the Hillingdon Hospital as inadequate (the trust overall is currently rated as “requires improvement”). Contributory factors include maintenance, infection control and capacity issues, which are a direct result of the physical constraints of the legacy estate. The site layout and state of disrepair can also make it difficult for our staff to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as they would like.
These issues contribute to the Trust’s financial deficit and hinder our mission to provide high quality, safe and compassionate care to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we serve.
Given the above, it is clear that there is an urgent need for significant investment to redevelop Hillingdon Hospital. Without this, the estate will continue to deteriorate until the delivery of modern healthcare on the site is no longer possible.