The existing hospital

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in North West London provides health services at two hospitals in the Borough of Hillingdon, Hillingdon Hospital and Mount Vernon Hospital. Hillingdon Hospital is the main site for the Trust and serves the residents of Hillingdon as well as parts of Ealing, Harrow, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.

The current Hillingdon Hospital is an old building with parts of the estate built in the 1940s as emergency wartime accommodation. Some of the older wards have become unsafe and have been closed to protect patients and staff.

80% of the hospital building will require major repair or replacement soon. Works have been undertaken and more are planned to enable us to continue providing services safely in the short term. However, if we were to undertake all the necessary repairs required, it would cost us over £230m and many of the repairs would not be long term solutions.

For our patients, the maze-like layout of the current site makes it difficult to get around and the condition of buildings can make the experience of being in hospital more difficult. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the Hillingdon Hospital in 2018 as inadequate (the Trust overall is currently rated as “requires improvement”). Contributory factors include maintenance, infection control and capacity issues, which are a direct result of the physical constraints of the legacy estate. The site layout and state of disrepair can also make it difficult for our staff to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as they would like.

These issues contribute to the Trust’s financial deficit and hinder our mission to provide high quality, safe and compassionate care to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we serve. It is clear that there is an urgent need for significant investment to redevelop Hillingdon Hospital.