The outpatients building

A NATIONAL Health Service hospital with the largest repairs backlog in the country is set to close its main outpatients building after dodgy concrete was discovered by workers.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found in top-floor roof slabs of a St Mary’s Hospital building in Winsland Road, Paddington.

This is a type of concrete that was widely used in the building sector but has been found to be structurally unsafe and capable of collapse with little or no notice.

NHS managers said a decision had been made to “close the whole building” by the end of March and install supports and reduce weight in the top floor in the meantime.

The Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust that runs the hospital said clinics would not be cancelled and could be reprovided in other hospitals or elsewhere on site.

“The problems with the outpatients building are part of a much wider estates challenge across our hospitals, especially at St Mary’s,” it said in a statement. The trust is hoping to redevelop the main outpatients building and potentially other land nearby as part of a long-held ambition to rebuild the entire hospital site. It was named last year as having the largest high-risk repair backlog in England – around £400million, roughly 20 per cent of the national total.

Last year the top boss of Imperial warned St Mary’s “would not last” until the 2040s after the government announced a £2billion repair package was not expected to start until 2035.

Professor Tim Orchard

Its chief executive, Professor Tim Orchard, des­cribed the delays as “devastating news for our communities, our staff and patients, and for the whole of the capital’s healthcare system”.

A previous government promise of funding for major hospital rebuilds, made by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, was judged unaffordable by current health secretary Wes Streeting. He said last year that the funds would be drip-fed over a longer period of time.

The Extra reported in 2023 on former Westminster North Labour MP Karen Buck telling the House of Commons of how St Mary’s had endured fires, floods, sewage leaks, and a ceiling collapse that shut a patient ward for a fortnight.

As of September last, 41 hospital sites across the country had been identified to have RAAC.

The outpatients building is on land owned by the Imperial Health Charity.

Ian Bateman, chief operating officer, said: “We’re really sorry for the disruption this has caused for both patients and staff. And we’re grateful for the responsiveness, flexibility and collaboration that everyone has shown as we work hard, not just to minimise the impact but to identify possible improvements in how we run our services and address our underlying estates problems at the same time.”