Hospital chief’s warning over rising repair bill
MORE problems with a crumbling Teesside hospital have been flagged up by chiefs – with a warning another £3m of repairs are needed.
Surveys have found University Hospital of North Tees is seeing water seep behind concrete panels in its north and south wings, with “significant cracks” in panels. Board papers have also shown concrete is showing signs of cracking in the north wing basement.
Bosses at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust lodged a £380m bid to build a new hospital to replace North Tees in autumn, with a decision on whether it was successful expected to come in the spring. But a verdict on whether the Hardwick site will be included in a shortlist of eight has been delayed.
The trust is facing a huge £288m repair backlog. Leaking roofs and windows, broken ceiling panels and freezing pipes have all been flagged up by officials, with the site labelled “not fit for purpose”.
It’s now been revealed costs of around £8m a year just to keep it in its current tired condition are expected to hit £12m this year. Trust finance chief Neil Atkinson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the amount of its capital programme spent on maintenance had “gone up significantly”.
He added: “We’re looking at decarbonisation and trying to reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint. That’s in there as well – we’re looking at putting solar cells on some of the roofs and making sure we look into LED lighting.
“We’re trying to do that in a structured way so we don’t spend a whole load of investment on a building not fit for purpose. We’re picking the buildings we know are going to last beyond the next 10 years. The bulk of it is about keeping the building ticking over.”
North Tees has faced almost two decades of waiting and false dawns for a replacement.
A £460,000 plan for a ‘super hospital’ at Wynyard fell by the wayside in 2010 before it was abandoned completely. Mr Atkinson revealed the trust had carried out an “intrusive structural survey” into its tower block, and two of the trust’s wings.
He explained the money they would have to spend would not extend the life of North Tees beyond the 10 years chiefs have forecast it has left.
Mr Atkinson said: “It’s just money we have to invest to make sure the building is fit for purpose for the next 10 years. We think that is probably £3m of work we’re going to have to do in the next six to 12 months.”
He also revealed the trust would be using its internal reserves from recent surpluses to pay for the work.
The finance chief added: “But, like anything, if we spend it on that, we can’t spend it on something else. If we hadn’t made a surplus in the last few years, we would probably have to go cap in hand to the Department of Health.”
More than 100 trusts have bid to be selected for one of the eight new hospital sites lined up in the Government’s Health Infrastructure Fund.
Mr Atkinson hoped they would find out if North Tees had been successful at the turn of the calendar year. But hospitals built using aerated concrete decades ago are expected to come in front of North Tees in the long queue.
Mr Atkinson said: “I really hope we’re successful, but if we don’t get it, we’re going to have to try and find some funding. We’re looking at exploring innovative funding arrangements because some of the funding in the health service is quite traditional and outdated as well.”