Agenda item

Considered – A verbal update via Teams from Francesca Hewitt, Senior Programme Manager, Airedale NHS Foundation on the current situation at Airedale Hospital.

The main points covered:

·       Airedale is one of seven hospitals constructed predominantly of RAAC

·       There are approx. 20,000 load bearing planks in total of which 5400 are logged as being defective and of these 500 are severely damaged and being supported with structural steel

·       RAAC material forms around 83% of the hospital estate

·       An in-house monitoring programme inspects all planks annually and defective planks receiving a minimum of two inspections

·       Plans are in place to decant all wards over the next three to four years

·       Funding is not yet secured for a replacement hospital and there has been no announcement confirming the hospital will receive a place on the government’s new hospital programme

·       The trusts Chief Executive has written to the Prime minister and other Ministers to ensure they maintain an up-to-date picture on the deteriorating position of the hospital

·       The trust continues to seek funding from all avenues

Councillor Foster stated that this information was not in the public domain and most of the public in the area were not aware of it and more momentum is required in terms of communication.

Councillor Colling asked how NYCC could support and to confirm to Christine Phillipson who the Committee needed to lobby to ensure support for the trust.

Councillor Murday asked if some specialist provision would be needed elsewhere to support the project.

It was confirmed that endoscopy was currently in the new structure and theatres were unaffected. There has been a concern over the increase in costs, but the highest level of structural support was in use and the cost of full replacement was £100m less than building a completely new hospital.

Councillor Solloway agreed that there was little awareness in the public domain on this and the need to publicise the issues to the surrounding community was a priority. The hospital serves more than the immediate Airedale area and support from other Members was absolutely key and to be actively encouraged.

Councillor Haslam asked if there were any further statistics available and what the situation would be if funding was unsuccessful. Advising the Committee of how they can help would be well received.

Councillor Jabbour asked if there was a risk the hospital would need to be replaced sooner than 2030.

Francesca confirmed that the site was reviewed monthly due to the severity of the situation with daily checks completed in house. There was no current need to revise the life span date expected but obviously that is an unknown and the situation could change in the next few years. The risks would be reviewed again in January 2023.

In terms of increased costs, to build a new hospital in 2020 was £500m and is now circa. £680m in 2022. The cost to replace the RAAC in 2020 was £400m.

It was suggested the Committee write to the MP in order to lobby and also recuperate some costs from Government and also perhaps support a press release and /or write to NHS England in support of replacing the hospital.

Resolved – The Chairman thanked Francesca for her presentation and suggested she return to a future Committee meeting with an update. The Committee would support where possible and could Francesca confirm to Christine Phillipson who the Committee needed to lobby to ensure support.