A HOSPITAL worker is being forced to walk down 22 flights of stairs due to a broken lift.

One lift in Oslo Towers, Weston, has been out of order since June 16.

With 26 flights of stairs to the top floor and only one lift working, resident Chris Dunne says waiting 20 minutes for a lift to arrive is "no joke".

Some 300 residents live in the 13-storey block.

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The 67-year-old has a list of health conditions, including emphysema and SIBO, a condition that affects bacteria in the small intestine.

He is a semi-retired electrical maintenance engineer at Southampton General Hospital, fixing electrical faults on wards and in theatres.

In a request to the council to escalate the issue as a health and safety concern, Mr Dunne explained he had to walk down 22 flights of stairs at 5.15am to get to work. 

He told the Echo: "I retired in April last year. I ended up going back to work. With the cost of living crisis, I now work three days a week.

"It is quite physical at work. I can walk five miles a day at the hospital. I also cycle to work when it's not raining.

"To come home from a hard day's work to that. It's just very stressful. We are understaffed at work.

"With my health condition, to come back at the end of the day and just trying to relax.

"We do pay a service charge. It's been exhausting trying to deal with the council as well.

"I am totally drained and exhausted from this whole affair."

He added that it is a concern as there are vulnerable, elderly, and disabled tenants in the block.

"There will be mothers, children in push chairs, queuing outside," he said.

"It's incompetence. It's negligence. They don't seem to care about the people in the building by doing that."

After reporting the issue in June, Southampton City Council said in August that the lift should be fixed by October 3.

This was because the materials needed to fix the fault were being held up by issues with the supply chain.

However, the lift remains broken.

A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: “There are two lifts at Oslo Towers: one which is operating as usual and another which is undergoing maintenance and should return to service next week.

"We appreciate this has increased waiting times and caused inconvenience for residents, for which we apologise, but our Neighbourhood Wardens are on hand to provide support to less mobile and vulnerable residents as needed.

"We would like to thank residents for their patience while repairs take place.”

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