Is there anything we can do about this? NHS/terrible conditions

[HarpieDuJour]

I started work in a hospital kitchen last year, and I really like the job, mostly. The only problem is the terrible condition of parts of the building. It's actually a fairly new building, but the women's changing rooms have no functioning toilet (it was disconnected because it was faulty, but the pipes were never capped and the smell from the drains seeps out) and the shower was removed completely when it also malfunctioned (this is really galling because I was told at interview that there was a shower for the women to use). There is a leak in the roof over the lockers and we are tired of the small bucket that was placed there as a "solution" overflowing and flooding the lockers.

If we need to use the toilet, we have to leave the department and go down a corridor. One of the women (at least) has IBS, so this causes real problems for her. The men's facilities are fine , and much larger than ours, despite there being only one man working there.

We have complained to our manager and to his manager, but nothing is ever fixed. Realistically, what can we do? Would joining a union help? If we don't do something, then it's fairly clear that nothing will be done, but what can we do that will have some sort of effect?

I forgot to say, the toilet has been like this for at least a year and the shower was removed before that. I'm not sure on the timescale for the leak, but it was before December.

Union rep here.

If none of you are in a union already, I'd suggest the IBS sufferer call ACAS.

Can't the male toilet be made unisex?

Obvious solution is making the male toilets unisex.

Could tricky if they have urinals I guess but you could come to an informal agreement with the one man?

I worked in a modern NHS building where the toilets were unisex but they were all individual cubicles so it was no problem.
I had another job where we had no toilets in the department. There were several departments that had to use the public/visitors toilets, which meant walking a distance and queuing. Another job only had unisex toilets for both staff and visitors. The staff kitchen was a sink in my office.
Facilities for NHS staff are usually poor.

I've joined this week, but nobody else is. I'll suggest ACAS, thank you.

The man is the head of department, and won't share. Also, the shower only has a curtain between it and the main changing area, so could be problematic. The actual changing area really isn't big enough for any sort of distance between mean and women changing- we would literally be stripping off within 2 feet of our boss. When it's only women, it's a squeeze as things are, but none of us are especially modest, however we draw the line at that.

If he isn't there, we use his toilet, but most of the time he is. We would manage without our own loo, if it wasn't for the disconnected but uncapped one, which stinks! And the thought of changing into our work uniforms in that area and then going to prepare food isn't great. (We aren't allowed to come in wearing our uniforms or change elsewhere). Oh, and the leak in the ceiling is "fine" according to every manager we have spoken to.

Given the massive shortfall in the budget for our area atm, we are realistic and would be happy with the open toilet pipes being capped, the leak at least investigated and maybe an arrangement which allowed the IBS sufferer to use the male toilet so long as she knocks first or something. But all management will say is that it's fine, there isn't really a problem.