The situation at crumbling Stepping Hill Hospital – with bosses pleading for cash to stop patients' safety being put at risk – is 'extremely worrying', a government minister has said.

Earlier this week, NHS bosses in the Stockport yet again urgently appealed for funds to stop the hospital estate falling further into disrepair.

The site has seen significant upgrades in recent years – including new multi-million emergency and outpatient departments – but many of the buildings need of major work. Numerous areas are decrepit after 121 years treating patients.

More than half the estate is deemed to be in 'poor' or 'bad' condition.

One medic said wards are 'falling apart', claiming some buildings 'need to be condemned'. Patients sometimes have to be transferred elsewhere or have surgeries cancelled, they add, with the 'snowball effect' making waiting times worse.

Pictures inside show disintegrating walls; leaking roofs; and precarious floors. Damp plagues areas of the estate; water trickles from windows when it rains; and some staircases are closed.

One ward is completely shut due to roof issues, while the floor on one busy corridor is 'in danger of collapsing'. Steam from the pipes below is rotting floorboards. One cramped staff toilet is used by 30 people.

Bosses say there is a major issue five or six times a year. Smaller scale problems crop up weekly. Two years ago, one of the major outpatient buildings was condemned and demolished. Then there were two 'unexpected and unrelated' ceiling collapses at the radiology department and critical care units.

Bosses pleaded for extra funding from the government, but no commitment was made from ministers. Over the years, Stepping Hill chiefs have repeatedly pleaded for cash to bring things up to scratch.

This week, that plea was renewed. At present, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust estimates it will cost more than £134m just to maintain current buildings at a basic level over the next five years, outstripping the £118m of government funding announced so far.

Ideally, hospital bosses want around £400m to properly address the wealth of issues. They say money would be saved in the long term.

Chief operating officer Jackie McShane said: "If we do not do something soon in this organisation, we will have significant failings in corridors. I can't stress this enough."

Hazel Grove Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart said she was angry after seeing staff forced to collect water leaking through a ceiling in a bucket meant for needles, adding: "We shouldn't have anybody working in those conditions."

She added: "It cannot be sensible decision making that has got us to this point where it is costing so much more to generate energy; so much more to insulate the buildings; so much more to just run to stand still with the maintenance and plugging gaps."

On Tuesday (November 10), the issue was raised in the House of Commons following MPs' 'harrowing' experiences visiting the hospital in recent weeks.

Cheadle MP Tom Morrison said: "I saw staff and patients' dignity taken away from them.

"I saw a building completely and utterly unfit for purpose and I saw a health system that was left to rot, quite literally, over the years of Conservative neglect now being given only plasters by the current government.

"To see staff and patients suffer in buildings that leaked, surrounded by walls that were rotting and floors that were sinking, was truly awful. It painted a stark and terrible picture of the way our health service is being treated by decision makers in Whitehall."

Health minister Alison McGovern said years of underinvestment had caused problems across the NHS, but said there are no quick fixes. The government, she said, is investing £1.5bn across the country and millions into Stepping Hill, with more money promised in the future.

Describing the situation as 'extremely worrying'm she said: "I cannot pretend that what has been done resolves every infrastructure challenge at Stepping Hill. It clearly does not.

"The pressures facing the hospital have built up over many years and will take time to address, but we are putting the local NHS on a much stronger footing to tackle them.

"We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge, but we are delivering vital investment to address the most pressing risks at Stepping Hill while giving local NHS organisations greater certainty and flexibility to plan properly for the hospital's long-term future.

"Without a doubt, there is much more to do but this is how we move away from short-term fixes and towards a safer, more resilient Stepping Hill hospital that can continue to serve the people of Stockport for many years to come."

Following the debate, Ms Smart said the government minister 'seemed to be genuinely shocked by what she heard and maybe this is the time that it cuts through', but added: "We've had a succession of ministers who have said the right words, but not delivered.

"Kind words and sympathy don't deliver the care and investment that patients and hospital staff deserve."