Bill for repairs at part-finished Midland Metropolitan Hospital may reach £25 million
Up to £25 million may have to be spent putting right weather damage and other deterioration at the part-built Midland Metropolitan Hospital, a report has revealed.
The North Birmingham and Smethwick Hospital Trust is looking for a construction firm to take on a so-called 'early works contract' to repair any damage and get the site ready for whichever firm eventually restarts construction.
Delays sorting out how the new construction programme would be paid for mean hospital bosses need to prevent the site suffering any further damage.
Work on the £350m project, in Cranford Street, Smethwick, ground to a halt in January when contractor Carillion went into liquidation. Two thirds complete, it was already running late at that stage because of problems last year with its new mechanical and electrical systems.
Freezing ice and snow followed by scorching summer temperatures have so far resulted in £15 million of deterioration to the building, according to a report for the Trust's board compiled by chief executive Toby Lewis.
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While the target is to get a new contractor working on the building with the aim of having it open by 2022, the hospital trust has taken on new staff with experience of the project to oversee the site and its development in the coming months. This will centre on the early works contract.
Mr Lewis said: "We are progressing this at pace and anticipate being able to make a contract award in early August. "We would expect a contractor to be on site from October and remain with us to spring 2019."
It is thought part of the contractor's work will be to make the site safe and weatherproof while it awaits final construction work.
In the meantime the trust is looking at its two options – creating a new private finance initiative company to complete the work or seeking government investment to fund a contractor to finish the hospital. Work on assessing which option offers the best value for money, and whether there is any appetite in the construction market for a PFI deal, is due to be completed by the end of this month.
The trust is also working out details of how it will handle acute care across its hospitals while it waits for the Midland Met to be completed.
In the meantime it faces heavy costs, with around £220 million of work to be done on the hospital – including £125m of additional costs – and around £15m to £25m of work on the early works contact.
But Mr Lewis was able to reassure the trust's board that it will not have to find the extra money needed. He said the Health Minister Steve Barclay and David Williams, director general for finance and chief operating officer at the Department of Health, "have been explicit that the local NHS will not be asked to fund further commitments beyond the unitary payment that we had agreed through the business case and contract."
He also scotched suggestions that the partly complete hospital would have to be taken down and rebuilt from scratch: "Far from it the superstructure of the build is fit for purpose and any demolition would create problems not solve them."
And Mr Lewis was adamant that the current timescale of opening in 2022 would not need to be extended: "On the contrary we have two years building work and three and a half years to finish the project.
"Unless we have a second contractor failure after commencement the set timetable is achievable. That is why great attention must be made to the stability of any incoming contractor."
