{"id":145658,"date":"2025-09-15T19:29:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145658\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T19:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:29:30","slug":"boss-says-kings-lynn-hospital-props-no-excuse-for-poor-rating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145658\/","title":{"rendered":"Boss says King’s Lynn hospital props no excuse for poor rating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoe ApplegateBBC News, East of England and<\/p>\n

Nikki FoxHealth correspondent, BBC East<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Giles\/BBC<\/p>\n

QEH interim executive managing director Chris Bown took over the running of the hospital in June<\/p>\n

The boss of a hospital being held up by thousands of props said its structural problems were not to blame for it being named as the country’s worst performing hospital.<\/p>\n

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, came bottom in the first ever league table to rate all 134 acute hospital trusts in England. <\/p>\n

QEH interim executive managing director Chris Bown said: “The issues… are not directly attributed to the state of the building.”<\/p>\n

He said he hoped to see improvements to cancer waiting times and the emergency department by Christmas, before adding the hospital’s financial recovery and workplace culture would take longer to overhaul. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital suffers from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) and is propped up by thousands of metal posts<\/p>\n

The league table<\/a>, which shows the performance of hospitals, ambulance services and mental health trusts, is judged on areas including waiting lists, financial performance, cancer treatment, infection levels and staff feedback.<\/p>\n

The QEH was built in 1980 and has been prioritised for a rebuild<\/a> as 8,598 steel and timber supports<\/a> have been used to hold up the building, which was made using Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Raac). <\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The best and worst-performing NHS Trusts in England have been named in new government league tables <\/p>\n

The Raac concrete has reduced the number of operating theatres available, meaning fewer procedures could be carried out, causing a backlog.<\/p>\n

Because the hospital has struggled to attract staff, it has spent a significant amount on agency workers.<\/p>\n

This has meant it has got into financial trouble, and would have been penalised in the league table because of that.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Bown said the building’s ailing structure did not excuse its performance.<\/a><\/p>\n

“The issues about our waiting times in our emergency department being too long; our waiting times for cancer care and elective care being too long and our financial situation – because the Raac issue is dealt with separately – are not attributed directly to the state of the building.<\/p>\n

“There are things we must do within this building to improve the experience of patients and staff.”<\/p>\n

Mr Bown said it would further invest in more emergency department medics, ensure senior decision-makers were on shift until midnight, and fund additional capacity to treat about 6,600 patients currently waiting for cancer care or tests. <\/p>\n

Despite its lagging performance, he said it had received messages of support on Tuesday from people pleased with their experiences. <\/p>\n

He said its friends and family result – a key indicator in the league table – had been “very good” too.<\/p>\n

‘They helped save my life’ <\/p>\n

\"RobbyRobby West\/BBC<\/p>\n

Diane Boothy says she previously worked at the QEH in 1990 and was sad to see “noticeable” structural issues with the building<\/p>\n

Diane Boothby, 66, from Downham Market has been a patient at the QEH after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n

She said: “I think they’ve helped save my life\u2026 the nurses are brilliant. I personally can’t fault it\u2026 I have been looked after. The staff they’re the best.”<\/p>\n

She said structural issues were “noticeable” to patients and were a sad sight to see as a former employee, who worked in the operating theatres at the hospital in 1990.<\/p>\n

She said: “I didn’t expect that at all. I know we need a new building but it’s the people. It’s the people who are keeping it going.<\/p>\n

“They’re working really hard and feeling like they’re being really put down and it’s not them, it’s the way the system is working at the minute.”<\/p>\n

‘Stick our head in the sand’<\/p>\n

\"RobbyRobby West\/BBC<\/p>\n

Andrew Higgins said the design of the hospital only lasting between 30 and 40 years was “ridiculous”<\/p>\n

Andrew Higgins said the rating of the hospital was “hardly surprising” when the building was falling to pieces. <\/p>\n

“How can you expect the staff to be able to provide a world class service in that kind of an environment? <\/p>\n

“I think it’s ridiculous that we have allowed ourselves to be in situation where we design a hospital that is only meant to last 30 or 40 years at the most… we stick our head in the sand and we hope for a miracle that it will resolve itself and it won’t,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoe ApplegateBBC News, East of England and Nikki FoxHealth correspondent, BBC East Martin Giles\/BBC QEH interim executive managing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-145658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}