NHS bosses have told hospitals across England to be ready to evacuate staff and patients if buildings containing concrete that are at risk of collapse start to fall down.
NHS England issued the instruction to all 224 health trusts on Tuesday in the wake of the row over reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete (Raac), which has led to the closure of more than 100 schools.
It came in a letter from Dr Mike Prentice, the organisation’s national director for emergency planning and incident response, and Jacqui Rock, its chief commercial officer.
In it, they tell trust chiefs that they should familiarise themselves with a “regional evacuation plan” drawn up by the NHS in the east of England so that hospitals could implement it in the event that buildings that contain Raac start to crumble.
While all trusts should do so it is “essential” that the 19 trusts that have the largest numbers of facilities built using Raac do so “as a matter of priority”, the letter makes clear.
It says: “A regional evacuation plan was created and tested in the East of England. Learnings from this exercise have been cascaded to the other regions.
“We would recommend that all [trust] boards ensure that they are familiar with the learning from this exercise and that they are being incorporated into standard business continuity planning as a matter of good practice.
“This exercise is, however, essential for those organisations with known Raac, and should be done as a matter of priority if it has not already been completed.”
The letter was sent to the chair, chief executive and estate leads for all 224 trusts and 42 integrated care boards in England, which are regional groupings of NHS trusts and local councils.
Hospitals were also told in the letter that they need to have plans in place to allow for the “decant of patients and services where Raac panels are present in clinical areas” in the event of “Raac failure” – buildings starting to fall down.
Seven trusts run a hospital made mostly of Raac planks and 12 others have at least one building that was erected using the material.
That form of concrete, which one hospital boss has likened to an Aero chocolate bar because it contains so many air bubbles, was heavily used in the construction of schools and hospitals from the 1950s to 1990s. However, it has long passed its 30-year expected lifespan, leaving facilities built with Raac in danger of falling down.
A number of hospitals have had to install hundreds of props around affected building to ensure that roofs, ceilings, floors and walls do not start to disintegrate. For example, the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Norfolk has 2,400 props holding up the roof.
#NHS #England #tells #hospitals #ready #evacuate #buildings #crumble #NHS
