NHS Estate Update

Further Details from NHS Estates following the Committee’s discussion at the last meeting where Members felt further detailed information on properties with RAAC and Asbestos would be useful and also to highlight any maintenance issues as well as general issues within the Estate.

RAAC

All Trusts and NHS Property Services have undertaken survey work and identified any RAAC and funding and plans are in place for removal of RAAC. A full list from public sources is below with the two North Yorkshire sites highlighted.

All general practices were recently asked to review their premises for RAAC.

List of NHS hospitals “made nearly exclusively” of RAAC:

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn
• Leighton Hospital
• James Paget Hospital
• Frimley Park Hospital
• Hinchingbrooke Hospital
• Airedale Hospital
• West Suffolk Hospital

Other NHS hospitals and health centres affected:

• Arthurs Hill Clinic
• Broomfield Hospital, Building 60
• Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Block 44 and Block 8
• Southampton General Hospital Laboratory and Pathology Block
• Bassetlaw and District General Hospital mental illness buildings and theatres 1-4
• Kidderminster Hospital Block A
• Scarborough General Hospital pathology, pathology link corridor, theatre, attic, plant room, and north/south block link corridor.
• Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital Level 4, R14 and R15
• The Royal Oldham hospital roof and The Salford Royal Turnberg building
• Haywood Hospital
• Aintree University Hospital Tower block plant rooms, main kitchen, Clinics A, B, C, D, and F, Domestic services centre, imagine department, Ward 6, Theatre A plantroom/recovery, pre-op
• Haverhill Health Centre
• Warren Farm Health Centre

Asbestos

Asbestos may be present in any building constructed prior to 2000. The approach employed is that an asbestos survey should be completed in buildings prior to that date by an appropriately qualified specialist firm. The survey sets out any known or suspected asbestos and a management plan is put in place to monitor, manage and/or remove any asbestos identified. If the asbestos is encapsulated and a low risk the plan may be to manage, but then a regular cycle of checks is required to ensure that there has been no damage and that the level of risk has not changed. All health facilities should have an asbestos report and where necessary an asbestos management plan.

In addition to the routine activity above a pre-construction survey is required if any building works are to be undertaken to fully understand the asbestos in the facility and develop an appropriate plan for its management and/or removal as part of the works.

Maintenance

Reporting on maintenance issues is undertaken in different ways by different parts of the health system. The acute and community Trusts provide an annual return about their estate which is called Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC). Estates Returns Information Collection - NHS Digital

There are detailed definitions which break out the levels of backlog maintenance on a risk adjusted basis.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/148143/Backlog_costing.pdf

In general practice and NHS Property Services properties, the approach is generally based on maintaining buildings to be statutorily compliant e.g. annual gas survey, 5 yearly electrical survey and to meet condition ‘B’ which means buildings are in a safe and useable condition. Surveys are undertaken periodically to check the condition and to highlight works that are required, and ideally a programme of planned maintenance to ensure the building is adequately maintained. Due to the multiple ownership models in primary and community care there is no routine reporting in the same way as Trusts.

Karina Dare

Primary Care Estates Strategy Lead