Healthcare union Unison has raised new doubts about whether there really are any long-term plans to replace the Bolingbroke Hospital, after it was revealed repair work to make safe a fire hazard there would cost just £790,000.

The revelation that last year health chiefs put that price-tag on the required improvements - a sum considerably smaller than any new hospital would cost - has left the union casting doubt on the plans.

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust claims that due to the hazard, services must be moved from Battersea's community hospital in the short term - effectively closing it down - and in the long term the area would get a new local care hospital.

It also emerged that the fire hazard blamed for the closure has actually been known about and ignored since 1989.

Unison regional officer Michael Walker said: "Nobody has any faith that any future provision will actually materialise, except maybe very briefly at St John's."

A St George's spokesman admitted patients had been left at risk since 1989 due to a "failure in communication" which left senior managers unaware of the problem.

Also, just before the closure was first announced, in January 2005, the trust spent £2million refurbishing the hospital - but didn't improve safety standards.

Cash-strapped St George's, was recently given the lowest possible rating for its use of resources by the Healthcare Commission. It spent more than double what was needed to bring the hospital up to the required standard by refurbishing two wards, the day hospital and new intermediate care beds in a hospital it knew would close.

The decision was labelled "a scandalous waste of resources" by the then Wandsworth Council health scrutiny committee chairman Councillor James Cousins.

The £2m bill was only discovered after a council investigation. St George's originally admitted to spending just £600,000. A trust spokesman explained the money was ring-fenced, meaning it had to be spent on a specific project.

Mr Walker also condemned the trust's denials that the hospital was suffering "closure by stealth".

He said: "It's a sham, why can't they just be honest?

"Patients aren't being referred there any more so there's not the work. A lot of people are being made redundant. Five or six support staff are going just next week.

"There's no faith that St George's or the PCT will be honourable. The only people without an axe to grind are the council. We would like Wandsworth Council to be the guarantors for the hospital."

A council spokesman said: "There's suddenly a big deficit and the NHS want to save revenue costs. It's simply not possible to move all the services to St John's. You can't replace a hospital with a clinic."

A patient, who asked not to be named, agreed. The 70-year-old from Ramsden Road, Balham, said: "St George's suffers from a terrible disease - it's called inefficiency. The wards are just sitting there empty. It's worse than a mess."