Intensive care ward ceiling collapses on to patient on life support as medics evacuate unit

AN INTENSIVE care ward ceiling collapsed on to a patient on life support.

Medics had to evacuate the ten-bed unit on Thursday.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

Bosses declared a major incident at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, as engineers carried out urgent safety checks.

The following day, a surgeon was in a lift at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, as it plummeted down four floors before the emergency brakes were activated.

His leg was broken.

Critics say the incidents lay bare the woeful state of the NHS’s buildings.

Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told The Sunday Times: “It’s a sign of the crumbling infrastructure not just of our hospitals but of the whole country. These are not conditions patients or hospital staff should have to work in.”

She warned that the “chickens are coming home to roost” after years of under-investment in NHS facilities.

Last night, the Princess Alexandra Hospital said the patient on whom the ceiling collapsed was unharmed.

But staff at the trust said it was only the latest problem with the 1960s building.

In November, a ward in the basement was cut off when two lifts broke down.

Docs were told to call 999 if a patient on the ward had a heart attack, “because there’d be no way, without a lift, to move the patient to intensive care”.