Hospital floor remains empty

7:51am Wednesday 24th January 2007

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AS DUST gathers on a floor of a new £69m hospital wing, bosses admit they do not know what will become of the empty space.

Lewisham Hospital says it has no plans for the fourth floor of the Riverside building, which has been unoccupied since the wing opened in November last year.

Riverside was financed under a Private Finance Initiative which will see the hospital pay back £7m a year for the next 30 years.

The hospital claims the extra space is an effect of three ward closures which occurred between March and June last year.

These were part of the hospital's saving scheme, being overseen by chief executive Claire Perry, to claw back its deficit, now standing at £9m.

The three wards, which provided 60 beds for the elderly and people recovering from surgery, had been due to transfer to Riverside from the main hospital.

Hospital bosses say plans for the new building were too advanced to be able to change them when it was realised the extra space would not be needed.

Plans for the floor could include transferring one of the wards in the old block of the hospital to Riverside or asking a private medical provider to rent the space.

Lewisham's Campaign for Independent Living has 200 disabled members who use the hospital's services.

In December it was part of a pressure group which won free parking for Blue Badge holders at the site.

Its project co-ordinator, Jenny Spencer, 51, said: "This is a disgrace.

"First they tried to charge disabled drivers to pay for their deficits and now they have an empty floor they don't know what to do with.

"We'll be raising this with the hospital and will mount a protest if we have to. The floor could be raking in cash.

"They may have plans for it in a year's time which they aren't telling us about, but if not then it is very bad indeed.

"They have had plenty of time to have decided what should be done with it."

Brockley councillor Romayne Phoenix is about to become a member of the council's healthier communities select committee and has promised to highlight the problem.

The Green Party councillor is against filling the space with more private investment but said: "It's a disgrace this floor is sitting empty.

"I know they have been trying to come up with a solution but I'd like to know what it is.

"The problem is their hands are tied by Government rules but to finance services privately is not the answer.

"This is always going to cost more because profit goes to shareholders."

A hospital spokesman: "We can confirm the fourth floor has not yet been occupied for clinical services.

"Our beds have reduced by just under 100 in the past year.

"This overall reduction has meant there is an extra floor in Riverside we can use for a number of different options we are considering very carefully at the moment."

He added: "We hoped this matter would have been resolved by the time of the moving into the new building.

"However, we want to make sure the options are well considered and the decision makes for the best use of NHS resources over the longer term rather than make a quick decision wihch is not in the best interests of our patients."