NHS underwater: the growing problem of hospital flooding
March/April 2023: in early Spring we revealed England’s top 10 flooded NHS trusts.
Our research found that between April 2021 and March 2022 there were 176 flooding incidents at NHS sites, primarily causing disruption at General Acute Hospitals, which provide inpatient medical care, surgery and services for acute medical conditions or injuries.
Our report explored how the worst affected regions were the East of England and London, with 63 and 52 instances of flooding respectively at NHS sites.
The top worst hit NHS Trusts were:
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (30 incidents)
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, Essex (27 incidents)
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Trust, London (14 incidents)
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, London (9 incidents)
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London (7 incidents)
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (7 incidents)
Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust (7 incidents)
Hull University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust (6 incidents)
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (5 incidents)
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust (5 incidents)
Flooded ambulance station - Yorkshire Nov 2019.
Alexis Percival, a manager at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust:
“Flooding has undoubtedly caused damage to healthcare infrastructure and it’s highly disruptive to staff and patients. Our area isn’t even in the top 10 listed in the report but we’ve seen flooding make roads impassable, leading to ambulances being unable to get to patients on time, NHS keyworkers struggling to get to work and patients missing appointments. This is before we get to the longer term issues, such as the mental health impact on people and the threat of increased water borne diseases.
“Just three weeks ago flood waters came worryingly close to Fairfields, the main Yorkshire 999 call centre. I am really concerned that if we don’t tackle climate change, today’s near-misses could become tomorrow’s major disruptions to our NHS.”
Professor Maggie Rae, President of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Epidemiology & Public Health Section:
“Flooding has the potential to be a major public health issue. As well as the direct risks to life and health, this report is a timely reminder that flooding can knock out the infrastructure we rely on to access and deliver healthcare, such as hospitals, roads and communications. We also must not forget the major effect flooding can have on people’s mental health.
“It is acknowledged that the NHS is already overstretched dealing with the burden of disease in our country. We need to ensure that flooding does not result in major incidents that will inevitably impact on people’s health and the health services.”
Roger Harding from Round Our Way:
“When it rains, it pours for the NHS at the moment. Our report shows that flooding is already hitting the NHS hard. The government needs to make sure this essential service is better prepared, and tackle the climate change that is making extreme downpours more and more likely. If they fail to act, this stream of floods could become a deluge - and it will be those of us who rely on the NHS the most who will be hardest hit.”
Coverage of the research
This research was profiled in over 170 local, regional and national media articles across the UK, including the Yorkshire Post, Northern Echo, Herald, Independent, Evening Standard and many more. You can download the full report here.