More delays expected for Midland Met Hospital
The Midland Met Hospital could face yet another delay after bosses admitted they were struggling to find a contractor to take on the job.
Work on the £475 million super hospital stalled for nine months following the collapse of construction giant Carillion, before the Government stepped in to bail out the project.
It is already delayed by three years and has bust its budget by at least £125m.
Last month clearance work finally started at the site in Smethwick, but now bosses at the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust have warned there is a ‘significant risk’ of not finding a firm to take on the building work.
A report to the trust said there was a possibility that a replacement financier and contractor would not be found next year due to ‘insufficient market availability’.
This would result in construction of the hospital delayed beyond 2022, it said.
Bosses want the work to re-start on the two-thirds built hospital next Spring.
John Spellar, the Labour MP for Warley, has called for a quick solution to the issue in order to prevent another ‘damaging’ delay.
“This is extremely disturbing and I will be asking questions of the trust,” he said.
“It also points to the current weakness in Britain’s construction industry, which is a result of the lack of training over the years. This needs to be resolved – and quickly.”
On its monthly risk register the trust gave the possibility of a further delay an ‘amber’ rating, with a risk score of 12 out of a possible 25.
This means the trust still rates the possibility as a ‘significant risk’, although the figure has fallen since the last report when the issue was rated ‘red’ with a risk score of 20.
In the report, trust chief executive Toby Lewis said the final costs on the project – which Government agreed to fund in August following months of uncertainty – would not be known until next year.
He has previously said the delays alone could bring an extra cost of eight figures Balfour Beatty is currently onsite carrying out a six-month early works programme to restore and weatherproof the project, which suffered considerable damage since Carillion workers left the site in January.
The Midland Met was originally financed through a PFI agreement and was due to open this year.
