An outgoing boss at St Helier Hospital has warned patient safety could soon be at risk as the buildings crumble around staff at the hospital.

Dr Ruth Charlton is chief medical officer at St Helier and has been at the South London hospital for 25 years.

The doctor, who is in her final month in the position, warned that there is “no other option” than to refurbish the ageing Sutton hospital.

She said just last week a ward was forced to close because the building’s foundations are sinking.

Your Local Guardian: An aerial sketch of the new Sutton hospital. Credit: Epsom St Helier Trust. An aerial sketch of the new Sutton hospital. Credit: Epsom St Helier Trust. An aerial sketch of the new Sutton hospital. Credit: Epsom St Helier Trust. An aerial sketch of the new Sutton hospital. Credit: Epsom St Helier Trust.

Writing in The Observer over the weekend,  she said: “Right now, we are delivering safe care – but it’s not easy in such a dilapidated and unpleasant environment, and I fear we won’t be able to provide the level of care we’d like to – or should be – for much longer.

“Our patients and our staff deserve so much better than this current state – where wards are being shut down because the foundations are sinking, and floods and leaks are a certainty every winter.

"Every day we wait costs money, and each year we have to spend more and more on updating our old, rundown buildings, diverting scarce resources from the front line.

The hospital is supposed to be refurbished as part of an overhaul of emergency care in South London.

A separate emergency hospital is planned for Sutton which would include an accident and emergency department, critical care, acute medicine, emergency surgery, inpatient paediatrics and a maternity unit.

This would mean A&E departments at Epsom and St Helier hospitals would become “district hospitals” with urgent treatment centres rather than emergency departments.

The ageing buildings at St Helier Hospital are in desperate need of refurbishment and have been described as “crumbling” by the NHS trust.

Despite being approved by the government in 2020, planning permission for the new hospital is yet to be submitted.

The original date for completion was 2025 but now the earliest it would open is 2027.

Earlier this year health and social care minister Will Quince said the government is “working closely” with the NHS trust on the plans.

He said: “It will be one of the first larger and more complex schemes to be taken forward in line with the national programme approach.

"I know the trust is currently at the outline business case stage and we are working closely with them.”