Express & Star

Hospitals checking cladding after Grenfell Tower fire

Cladding at hospitals across the Black Country and Staffordshire are being tested for fire resistance following fears for public safety in the wake of the London tower block tragedy.

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Russells Hall Hospital

Hospital managers throughout the UK were requested by the Government to send assurances on the safety of their in-patient buildings as soon as possible.

Royal Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital and West Park Hospital, has warned providing safety guarantees will take time. Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Staffordshire trusts have also launched investigations into on-site building materials.

David Laughton, chief executive of the Wolverhampton trust, said the request was 'unacceptable' within the time frame and that the priority should be safety, not speed.

He told a trust board meeting: "Our response is that we believe our buildings are safe but we don't know.

"Our new emergency department and pathology lab are clad with metal but we have to check whether there is any combustible material behind that, and to get tested you're getting into a queue.

"Just because buildings are new means absolutely nothing in safety terms, as events at Grenfell Tower have shown. We are doing proper testing but to ask for a categoric assurance by Sunday was unacceptable."

Chief operating Gwen Nuttall said that in the meantime the trust's internal fire team was identifying which buildings needed to be tested.

"Our fire prevention strategy revolves around risk assessment, training, detection and compartmentation and significant progress has been made on all these aspects over the last three years. We believe we are in a positive position with regard to fire safety," she said.

“All our buildings were compliant with all fire safety requirements at the time they were built and following the fire in London and in accordance with the request by DH we will be looking at our buildings again, in conjunction with advice from the fire service, to ensure they remain compliant with fire safety guidelines.”

Seven years ago Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley underwent a £1.1 million re-cladding project of its north wing, which houses the diabetes centre and eye clinic, to provide better insulation.

Diane Wake, chief executive of The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, said: "In light of the Grenfell Tower fire, we are looking into the specification of our cladding with our PFI partner, Summit, which owns the Russells Hall Hospital building. NHS Improvement has asked all NHS trusts to undergo checks as a precautionary measure."

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said it had identified cladding at two sites. "But it is not the same as Grenfell," said trust spokeswoman Vanya Rogers.

"We have cladding at Birmingham Treatment Centre and Sandwell General Hospital. It has all been inspected and there are no fire safety concerns."

Regulator NHS Improvement, which oversees NHS-funded care, wrote to trusts at the weekend warning staff to provide any details of cladding on their buildings and fire improvement schemes.

Some 79 people died or remain missing following the blaze which was started by a Hotpoint fridge-freezer before rapidly spreading up the tower via the 'combustible' plastic-based cladding.