![Airedale General Hospital is among the sites affected](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/09/07/TELEMMGLPICT000348389290_16941212581290_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrfzZskasdHxLRTTh7do0m_4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Two million hospital patients ‘at risk’ from crumbling concrete
Seven hospitals employing employ 43,000 NHS staff affected with RAAC, according to figures from Liberal Democrats
![Airedale General Hospital is among the sites affected](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/09/07/TELEMMGLPICT000348389290_16941212581290_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrfzZskasdHxLRTTh7do0m_4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Almost two million patients and 43,000 NHS staff are “at risk” from hospital buildings with crumbling concrete, data has revealed.
Seven hospitals with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – including four where the crumbly material is present throughout – serve communities of 1.94 million people in total, according to figures from the Liberal Democrats.
The hospitals employ 43,000 NHS staff, including 5,000 doctors and 11,500 nurses and midwives, working on sites that NHS chiefs have said present “a major risk to patient and staff safety”.
It comes as Julian Kelly, the NHS chief financial officer, told the public accounts committee on Thursday that “tens” more hospital sites than initially thought were affected by RAAC. He said: “We are working quickly to do full surveys,” adding that the cases did not all include patient areas.
The NHS wrote to hospital bosses and asked them to ensure they had identified all RAAC on their sites and that “assessments made were sufficiently thorough”.
A National Audit Office report had previously established that 41 hospital buildings in England had the lightweight concrete.
Mr Kelly told MPs that there were “examples all the time where hospitals are having to shut units, decant patients into other spaces, where we are losing theatres”.
Amanda Pritchard, the NHS England chief executive, said RAAC was “burdensome” for local teams to monitor and manage. She added that enhanced monitoring “does not, and can’t completely, eliminate the risk from RAAC. That is why the eradication plan is so important”.
Under current timelines, all RAAC will be removed from hospitals by 2035. The seven hospitals where it is present throughout will be rebuilt by 2030.
Among those are the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk, which serves a population of a quarter of a million people, Airedale in West Yorkshire, with 186,000 local residents, and West Suffolk Hospital, with 278,000 people in its catchment area.
University Hospital Southampton, which has RAAC present and includes the Southampton General Hospital site, employs around 13,000 staff and is the local hospital for almost 500,000 people. It had previously said the only RAAC was in the laboratory and pathology block, a non-patient area.
Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said it was “deeply concerning” that patient units and theatres were being closed “day in and day out because of deteriorating estates and fire risks”.
She said hospital bosses had repeatedly warned “that RAAC presented major risks to the safety of patients, staff and services” and that “there could still be more cases to come to light”.
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, called for emergency funding to fix the hospitals at risk of collapse. He said it was a “national scandal” and staff “deserve better than to work in unsafe conditions under roofs at risk of collapse”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the claims were “misleading”, adding: “The NHS manages the hospital estate in line with technical advice and best practice. Where RAAC is identified, an effective mitigation plan is put in place to ensure hospitals are safe for patients and staff.”
A YouGov poll found that two thirds of the population think the Government is handling the crumbling concrete crisis “badly”, with a third saying it was doing so “very badly”.
The survey of 2,600 adults found just two per cent thought the Government was doing “very well” with the crisis.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has been accused of opening a “Pandora’s Box” after closing dozens of schools and forcing other public sector organisations to act. She told the Commons the department was being “ultra-cautious”.
Downing Street also sought to reassure tenants in social housing. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said dealing with RAAC depended on where it was found and “anyone that’s concerned should speak to their landlord or local council in the first instance”.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) called on the Government to publish a national risk register for all public buildings across the UK from “RAAC, asbestos and other severe structural problems”.