Epsom and St Helier hospitals trust is to spend £18m improving its buildings over the next year - including a leaky roof which results in patients having to be moved and beds being closed during heavy rain.
The trust will have £18m - double its normal allocation for "capital plans" - for 2015-16, as half of the money has come from sale of land on the old Sutton Hospital site to Sutton Council for a new school.
The money will be spent on a wide range of projects designed to improve the patient environment, service development, medical equipment, information management and technology.
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Half of it will be used to refurbish numerous wards across both sites, create a new eye unit at St Helier, provide a new paediatric audiology unit at Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children, and build an embryology lab.
The money raised from the part sale of the old Sutton Hospital site, £8.5m, will be invested into Epsom and St Helier hospitals' buildings to reduce "critical infrastructure risks".
B and C Blocks at St Helier Hospital are to be refurbished
The schemes receiving funding from this pot of money will include:
£1,456,000 to be spent on repairs to Epsom Hospital’s Wells Wing including replacement double-glazed windows
£4,201,000 to be spent on St Helier Hospital including replacement double glazed windows, replacing cold water storage, heating and replacing of failed flat roofs
In the specific case of the "failed flat roofs" at St Helier, £618,000 is to be spent.
A document on the plans stated: "There are significant issues with the failed flat roof and parapet walls, which greatly impacts on the inpatient wards every time it rains.
"There is a regular need to move patients and close beds, when there is heavy rain."
It added: "By replacing the heating and hot water plant, improved control will be afforded for in-patient wards and the high risk of this plant failing will be removed."
Part of the Wells Wing at Epsom Hospital which is to be refurbished
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