Hospital closes wards months after facelift

A London hospital has closed five wards and shut its inpatient department less than a year after splashing out £2million on a refurbishment programme.

Bolingbroke Hospital in Wandsworth has moved all its patients to other hospitals after discovering their accommodation posed a fire risk.

But the management admits it only identified the danger after it had completed the ambitious refurbishment project.

The revelation comes days after the Evening Standard revealed that the St George's NHS Trust - which runs the hospital - is facing a £20 million end-of-year budget deficit.

One opposition MP branded the oversight as an "extraordinary example" of why the NHS is wasting so much money.

A spokesman for the Trust admitted something had gone "seriously wrong". "Had we known there was a serious fire problem we would not have spent that money. Part of the money was £600,000 from the Government to change mixed wards into single-sex wards. Even so, it was still public money and should not have been spent," he said.

A report by the chief executive of Wandsworth council said the money spent on refurbishment "has effectively been wasted".

The report continues: "It is also noteworthy that whilst, in the past two years, three separate decisions on the closures of inpatient beds have been taken and rapidly implemented, progress towards agreeing long-term development plans for the hospital has been painfully slow."

The council called on the trust to explain why the fire safety problems had not been noticed when the refurbishment work was being carried out. It also called on the hospital to reveal how much it had cost to find alternative accommodation for patients.

Tory health spokesman Chris Grayling said: "It's an extraordinary example of why the NHS is wasting so much money. They seem to have flushed ?2million down the drain at a time when operations are being cancelled because of a lack of money. It beggars belief the NHS can manage things in this way.

"The money going into the health service isn't being used for clinical purposes and it isn't being used to treat patients, it is being mismanaged," he added.

A spokesman for St George's NHS Trust said not all the money had been wasted. Some £800,000 had been spent on upgrading the outpatient department, which remained open.

"We acknowledge that something went seriously wrong. Ultimately our responsibility is the safety of our patients and if there's a serious risk we have to do something," he said.