Crisis Point: Crumbling Landmark Patched Up With Tape

St Helier hospital is older than the NHS itself. A once beautiful modernist building that admitted its first patients in 1941, it has been left to crumble.

- Rachel Keenan

St Helier hospital is older than the NHS itself. A once beautiful modernist building that admitted its first patients in 1941, it has been left to crumble. The white paint is chipping on every corner of its formerly gleaming exterior and its balconies have been fenced off because of modern safety regulations.

More pressing concerns for staff are the structural issues that make their already difficult jobs much harder. Large windows built for an optimal stream of ventilation are held together with masking tape to stop them falling in on staff and patients. Corridor floors are sinking into the ground and seep mud. And lifts are out of service so often that ambulances are used to take the most vulnerable patients from side exits in wards to the main hospital building or the intensive care unit.

Pauline Swift, a consultant nephrologist, says the state of the building has reached crisis point. She recalls how on a cold morning in October a nurse had tried to close a window in a kidney dialysis treatment room and it fell off in her hand. "Somebody ordered extra blankets because it was so cold because of the broken windows," she said. "It's a brilliant little unit but really do you want to be looking after your patients in this environment? None of us do."