Parts of Blackpool and Blackburn Hospitals could 'collapse without warning'

Blackpool Hospital, among 30 others up and down the country, have been dubbed “ticking time bombs'" that could 'collapse without warning, with repairs estimated to be over £1 billion if this happens.

However, the material has a fixed lifespan of around 30 years, after which its integrity comes into question - an issue which has been known about since the 1990s. It is the fear of such a collapse being replicated in a busy hospital that has NHS trusts taking drastic measures as they apply for millions of pounds of funding to try and replace the affected buildings. Trusts find themselves in the difficult position of grappling with a problem that threatens, in some cases their entire hospitals, whilst maintaining care for patients.

A document released by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said the NHS was flying in the dark using RAAC planks beyond their life-span, saying: “There is no published information regarding the performance of RAAC planks past the intended design life.” Craig Black, interim chief executive, said: “We are spending public money on making a building safe that is only going to last for a few years.

So alongside outlining plans to replace the hospital completely, a path it says is quicker and cheaper than replacing the RAAC, the trust also applied for £51.1million in emergency funding covering just two years of issues kicked up by RAAC. “We quite often have to move services around to enable us to prop the roof and I think for patients who are lying in bed and seeing these props it does feel quite unsafe and we have had patients complain about this.”

At Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge, two operating theatres were also temporarily shuttered to patients heavier than 120kg so they could carry out surveys on parts of the hospital affected by RAAC. He pointed out that whilst normal concrete benefitted from steel reinforcements, RAAC was 80 per cent voids thanks to its bubble structure.

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