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Broken lifts are said to be making patients and visitors “confused” and “distressed” at North Middlesex University Hospital.
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which has run the hospital in Edmonton since the start of this year, has come under fire as dozens of people have been left “needlessly waiting outside” lifts.
Pat Kane, who accompanies a patient to the hospital for weekly appointments, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the lift service at North Mid was “erratic and unreliable” with people having to find alternative routes across the complex as a result.
“Do these organisations have a policy, since austerity, to do this to save money?” Pat asked. “They are supposed to work reliably. The same lifts are used by everyone in the hospital – staff, patients and visitors alike.”
North Mid has 20 wards, 633 beds and employs around 4,000 staff members.
Visiting the hospital regularly since March, Pat complimented the medical services and support, calling it “wonderful”, but said “the lifts are another matter altogether”.
On the route from the hospital’s multi-storey car park to the patient’s department, three out of five lifts were not working, Pat said.
One of the lifts in the car park is out of order with “no signs” and “no alternative routes given” or “information that there is another lift at the other end”.
Two out of four of the lifts in the main building are out of order, leaving staff and patients to take the stairs and staff with trollies “waiting outside every lift we passed”.
Having reported the issue “for some time”, Pat said: “Visiting hospital is stressful enough without faulty lifts and no information.”
He added : “It can make a miserable arrival at, and departure from, an otherwise excellent and improving hospital.”
In response to the complaints, a spokesperson for Royal Free London advised that repairs on the out of order lifts would be completed by the end of October.
She said: “We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the temporary reduced lift service at North Middlesex University Hospital.
“We are working hard to resolve the issue which is due to a combination of essential replacement, maintenance and repair work.”
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