Health Secretary visits King's Lynn's hospital
Matt Hancock has been opening a new unit
Last updated 18th Jun 2021
The Health Secretary has been visiting the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn today (18 June).
Matt Hancock opened the new surgical facility, the Sandringham Unit and was given a tour of the ageing site.
The unit was acquired by the QEH in autumn 2020. It's a former 26-bed BMI hospital.
The NHS Trust running the hospital said the Unit was instrumental during their fight against the second wave of COVID-19, by providing a dedicated facility for urgent surgery to continue and is critical to the Trust’s elective recovery programme and addressing the waiting times that have built up during the pandemic.
Mr Hancock said:
"Fantastic to visit the QEH in King's Lynn today with James Wild MP to thank NHS staff for their hard work & hear the case for a new hospital.
"We're delivering on our manifesto commitments of building 40 new hospitals & recruiting 50,000 more nurses.
"We will build back better for our NHS."
Professor Steve Barnett, Chairman at QEH commented:
“We are grateful to the Secretary of State for making the time to visit QEH to officially open our Sandringham Unit and to meet and thank staff for their hard work and dedication as the NHS has responded to the pandemic. It was enormously helpful to be able to listen to and share views with the Secretary of State on a range of topics, including the Trust’s continued journey of improvement, the Trust’s focus on elective recovery and restoration, and how we are proactively addressing our estate challenges whilst having a longer-term ambition to bring a new hospital to King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.”
Caroline Shaw CBE, Chief Executive at QEH, said:
“I’m really pleased that we were able to welcome the Secretary of State for a visit to QEH today to share our many improvements to patient and staff experience we have made over the last two years. Investing in our estate and digital infrastructure is central to our continuous improvement journey and this includes our ambition to bring a new hospital to King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, which is no more than our patients, local community and staff deserve.
“I am hugely proud of how Team QEH has responded to the pandemic and our relentless focus on delivering safe and compassionate care, and I am delighted that the Secretary of State recognised the hard work, dedication and efforts of our staff during his visit today.”
Calls are being made for the hospital to be re-built, with the site being called 'no longer fit for purpose' and some 200 metal props holding up the roof. Now 40 years old, it was originally built to stand for 25 years.
The town's MP James Wild is leading the call for a new QEH and has also received the backing of Wisbech's MP, Steve Barclay, who's experienced the hospital first hand, as it's where his son was born.
Mr Wild commented:
“It was a pleasure to welcome the Health Secretary to QEH to recognise the incredible effort of staff during COVID and in the successful role out of the vaccine programme. Since being elected, I have campaigned for increased investment in the QEH so I am pleased that the Health Secretary accepted my invitation to see the challenges that patients and staff face from the structural issues affecting the hospital. I will continue to champion the case for QEH to be one of the government’s new hospital schemes as this is crucial to continued improvement in patient care and health outcomes for people in West Norfolk and beyond.”
South West Norfolk MP Liz Truss commented:
“It is extremely positive that the Health Secretary visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. We have fantastic staff working at the QEH, serving a wide geographical area of patients, and I am pleased that the Secretary of State has had the opportunity to discuss with the leadership team the urgent need for a new build hospital. This is an issue I have been raising directly with him so the visit is most welcome.”
Cllr Stuart Dark MBE, Leader of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk said:
“I was pleased to be here to welcome the Secretary of State for Health to our hospital. It’s great that he can see first-hand the challenges that staff have to work with here. I welcome Matt Hancock’s visit and the chance to raise with him the level of concerns of Norfolk residents, both in the borough and county.”
The QEH submitted a case for a new hospital building last Autumn and has commenced the development of a Strategic Outline Case, building on last year’s submission, which will be completed by the end of 2021.
Earlier this year, the Government awarded the hospital £20.6million to carry out immediate repair work, but campaigners say that's not enough.
Speaking at the time, a spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said:
“We fully recognise the need to invest in improving health infrastructure across the country, including where trusts have identified significant issues. Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn will receive over £20 million to directly address the most immediate issues. We will shortly announce criteria and process for a further eight schemes to be included in the new hospitals programme."