Health secretary Therese Coffey has promised to visit Norfolk's crumbling hospital to see conditions for herself.

She will be the fourth health minister in two years to tour the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, whose roof is supported by more than 2,400 props.

But while the government has thrown millions at the QEH to stop the roof from collapsing, there has been no firm assurance that it will be replaced.

Senior staff warn the hospital, believed to be the most dilapidated in Britain, will become unsafe to use by 2030.

At the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Ms Coffey told ITV News: "We need to recognise some of the acceleration of the problems that are happening [at the QEH], the structural problems and I have got ministers working on this right now.

"I'm here, I'm taking decisive action, we're doing the detailed work and I will get to Norfolk before the end of this month to try and work out how exactly we're going to make this happen."

The 500-bed hospital was built with an expected working of lifespan of 30 years but is still operational more than four decades after it opened in 1980.

Reinforced concrete planks used in its flat roof are starting to sag and collapse and the government has spent £90m on a three-year plan to support the structure with a steel cage.

The QEH was not included on a list of 32 new hospitals announced by then prime minister Boris Johnson two years ago.

It now hopes it will be included on a list of eight further rebuilds which are expected to be announced later this year.

Plans have been drawn up for an £862m replacement on what is currently the hospital car park.

The proposed new-build is around a third larger than the current hospital, to cope with rising demand from west Norfolk's growing population.

Liz Truss, whose South West Norfolk constituency is served by the QEH, said she supported the new hospitals programme and was aware of the problems at the Lynn hospital before she became prime minister.

When asked about the hospital after she became PM, she said the decision would be made by Ms Coffey.