Whittington Hospital staff are being offered pay-offs to quit their jobs ­before Christmas

PATIENT wards at the Whittington Hospital have started being “decanted” this week following an inspection by the London Fire Brigade that found its main building was a fire risk.

The top boss of the Archway hospital revealed the safety ruling at a Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition meeting in Archway Methodist Hall on Tuesday night.

Selina Douglas also spoke about a series of financial challenges that have led to a “recruitment freeze” and staff this week being offered pay-offs to quit before Christmas.

She also said her staff were facing worsening racist abuse including nurses who won awards this week for long service getting spat on in the street on their way to work.

Ms Douglas said: “The fire brigade have done an inspection and said we need to do work. This has not been made public yet but we have told staff, they need to be on board.

“It’s containment works to make sure fire doesn’t spread. We are starting to decant the wards because we have to do the works.”

Ms Douglas said she couldn’t say too much as there was a legal dispute going on, adding: “The building is supposed to be fire safe.”

“The NHS is taking this really seriously. We are working with NHS England to agree funding around that,” she said. “We are disappointed that our joint admin­istrators for the previous PFI provider feels necessary to commence legal proceedings. But we continue to challenge that.”

Legal talks are under way following a claim of around £50million from a bank that loaned the PFI company the money to build the Whittington’s main front building in 2004. The deal was that the hospital had to make massive payments to a PFI company from its NHS funding for 35 years.

But the PFI company went bust after the Whittington stopped making the payments, saying it had failed to properly maintain the building under the terms of the PFI contract.

The PFI company’s administrators are currently suing the Whittington as the initial loan has not been repaid.

Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition meeting in Archway Methodist Hall

The same building – once a source of pride under New Labour’s PFI NHS building scheme – has now been officially marked out as a serious fire risk by the London Fire Brigade, but the hospital says there is no danger to patients.

Perhaps the most shocking comment made by the CEO was about the rise in racist abuse in the hospital and also in community settings.

Ms Douglas said: “We’ve seen an increase of racism against our staff and in our community work. We absolutely will prosecute. We have a lot of focus on making sure our staff are supported.

“I was at our long service awards ceremony today. It was with first-wave nurses who came 25 years ago and are still here today. Those staff are being racially abused in our hospital. I have had staff spat at walking up the hill. We will take action against those responsible.”

There were several positives, though, at the Whittington including its good position in national leagues tables, with particular praise on its maternity services.

The hospital has been given funding for a series of refurbishments including to build a “new energy centre” to stop the problem of power outages that hospitals around the country are facing.

She said: “The hospital is here to say. It is going to be the centre for maternal services in north central London. It protects our A&E.”

Ms Douglas said she was in talks about expanding the A&E which was “too small” – 15 years ago NHS chiefs were proposing closing the A&E saying it was surplus to requirements.

“But we do have a lot of problems,” Ms Douglas said: “We launched MARS – mutually agreed resignation scheme – last Thursday. If people want to resign, they can and they will get a payment.

“We have had a recruitment freeze on corporate divisions. We are removing agency staff which will have an impact on services.”

The hospital’s NHS trust is having to make a cut by April of £27m and has already said redundancies are coming.

The Tribune reported last month how 20 years of PFI had affected University College London Hospitals

Ms Douglas said: “We are seeing increased demand. We have put in measures to manage demand, but we can’t afford them. What we are contracted to deliver and what we’ve actually delivered are two different things.” She said staff pay was increasing but not matched by funding from government.

She said she felt she was trying to balance a three-legged stool at all times, adding that staff were worn out and stressed and that a food bank was important for many of them to make ends meet.

Massive staff cuts packages are being imposed at the Royal Free Hospital, which is already pushed to breaking point, as revealed by the Camden New Journal a fortnight ago.

Ms Douglas said there was a review of several contracts that was likely going to affect the provision of children’s services “in the community”.

The DWHC’s chairwoman Shirley Franklin said: “Our hospital is an amazing hospital. We should sing that loud. But we keep hearing ghastly stories from there and they are all because of these cuts.

But when you outsource and privatise, money ends up in shareholders’ pockets. It is not cheaper and it is morally not the right thing to do.

“We want the health money going into our hospitals and services. This government is not doing anything about that and it is really quite worrying.”