Patients and staff stress 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 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 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.
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.
“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,” Ed 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. 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.