ITV has revealed that St Helier Hospital in Sutton is in a state of disrepair with some wards closed off completely as they are “too dangerous to house patients”.

Consultant Doctor Pauline Swift told ITV that the hospital estate was in a “very poor” condition with the site plagued with a range of structural and maintenance issues, including leaks, cracked walls, and holes in the ceiling.

The hospital's exterior is “a symbol of neglect”, with holes in the windowpanes and branches growing out of the bricks.

ITV revealed that staff often recommend patients to take the stairs to the Maternity Unit as the lift was more often than not broken.

Employees reported having to put up signs when the lifts are working due to them breaking down up to three times a day.

One picture shared by ITV is of a receptionist on the Maternity Unit who is sat under a bulging plastic sheet which is catching water leaking from the ceiling and funnelling it into a large bucket.

The doors of the abandoned Beacon Ward are currently padlocked shut after hospital discovered the foundations of the ward were sinking causing the floor to collapse and the walls to crack.

This ward is now “permanently empty” and ITV describes it as “too dangerous to house patients”.

James Blythe, the hospital's Managing Director, told ITV: “St Helier was built in the 1930s…and it has served the local community really well for the past 90 years, but it is a building that is largely no longer fit for purpose,”

“It doesn’t meet some of the core standards that we would expect from a modern NHS hospital. Parts of it are really crumbling.

“We work really hard every day to continue to provide safe and effective care from this estate, but we know that becomes a harder and harder job every year.”

Recently, it was reported by the Local Democracy Service that the local NHS trust is still waiting for cash to submit a planning application for a huge new hospital in Sutton.

The proposal for the new hospital at the site of the Royal Marsden was approved by the government back in 2020 but more than two years on from the decision, planning permission is yet to be submitted.

The £500 million specialist hospital in Downs Lane would provide accident and emergency, critical care, acute medicine, emergency surgery, inpatient paediatrics and birth facilities.

It would replace the A&E departments at Epsom Hospital and St Helier Hospital which would become ‘district hospitals’ with urgent treatment centres rather than emergency departments.