Belfast Health Trust questions hospital delays

A member of Stormont’s health committee has asked whether the Belfast Health Trust should take “special measures” given the delays and costs associated with building Belfast’s new maternity hospital.

Senior trust officials and health department officials were called into the committee after further revelations about the facility, which is nearly a decade behind schedule.

It emerged that fixing the problems could cause a further delay of up to four years, with additional costs of up to £9m in the worst case scenario.

A potentially dangerous bacteria was first discovered in the hospital’s water systems in 2022 and means there is no date for its opening yet.

Experts are currently reviewing how serious the problem is at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

About this £50,000 is to be spent repairing the latest problem with medical gas pipework, However, on Thursday the committee heard that repairing the water pipes could cost millions in a worst-case scenario.

A hospital trust or facility is placed in special measures when it is deemed “inadequate”; When leadership is questioned or when it is unable to make substantial improvements in a reasonable time frame.

Usually someone from outside the trust is appointed to handle all this so that he can monitor what is happening.

In what was billed as a fact-finding exercise into what went wrong at the maternity hospital, the committee’s temporary chair Linda Dillon said she was “absolutely confused” after a briefing by the trust’s interim chief executive Maureen Edwards.

“What you’ve given us is very broad, but I’m still confused about where the responsibility lies,” Dillon said.

“Learning is one thing, but if there is accountability then it also has to play its part.

“If there are people who didn’t do the right thing or who made mistakes or knew something should have been done differently, we need to know and understand that, because it was public money.”

Ms Edwards said a full report into the issue of Pseudomonas bacteria at the hospital would set out three possible courses of action.

He told assembly members that the worst-case scenario was that the entire water pipe would have to be replaced at a cost of £7-9m and could take three to four years.

“I recognize and indeed share the health committee’s frustration and the public’s frustration with the delays and cost overruns associated with the maternity hospital scheme,” she said.

“Our focus at this time is clearly on safely opening a 21st century hospital that Northern Ireland’s mothers and babies deserve, but we know it needs to be safe.”

The SDLP’s Colin McGrath asked questions about how the trust is spending public money and who keeps accounts of it.

Addressing Health Department officials, he said: “You are the people who should be keeping an eye on these people (health trusts) and the work they are doing.

“If this had happened anywhere else, I would suspect, politely, that these people would be in special measures, perhaps as a trust that cannot be trusted with public money in terms of delivering services, because they are way over budget. Going.”

on September, BBC reveals Pseudomonas was rediscovered In the maternity hospital just a few weeks after the contractor was officially accepted by the Trust.

The trust took possession of the five-storey building in March this year, but a four-week operational exercise and a month of sample testing revealed high levels of bugs in the water pipes.

Trust officials said that while the former chief executive (Dr Cathy Jack) had signed off on the building, it is not the sole responsibility of one person on a project, but several groups and the former chief executive signed off on everyone’s behalf. Were.

Board chairman Ciaran Mulgrew said all the problems are already in place by 2023 and added, “Nobody is avoiding responsibility”.

Earlier this year, the Northern Ireland Audit Office said the latest estimated date for completion of the final phase of the maternity hospital is June 2025.

One report said, “The original cost estimate was £57m, the cost is now expected to be £97m.”

The committee also heard about other issues, including fire alarms and nurse call buttons, which have been addressed and are no longer considered red flag rated issues that could delay opening.

The BBC understands that around £200,000 was spent on fire alarm problems, which were not fully tested before the handover.

Nurse call alarms that were malfunctioning are now working.

Department officials and trust officials said they were not aware of any other major problems with the maternity hospital, but added that no project could be guaranteed to be problem-free.