Wolverhampton hospital building to close for six months as major roof repairs begin
An outpatients building at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton will be closed to the public for up to six months as major work to repair its roof gets under way.
Preliminary work to secure the Outpatients 1 building at the hospital is under way as it is presently lined with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) which has been found to be susceptible to structural failure when exposed to moisture.
The building, which sees 3,000 people a week come through its doors, is set to be closed from September until April 2025 whilst the main work takes place.
A timetable of the work was outlined at the first public meeting of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust in three years Tuesday – the two are now sharing many services and staff. The hospital was not named in an NHS document last year detailing 42 hospitals across the country which contained RAAC although Russell's Hall in Dudley was.
The lightweight form of concrete was commonly used in construction of buildings including schools between the 1950s and mid-1990s and is not seen to be durable past around 30 years. The government has planned upgrades to as many hospitals and schools containing it as possible.
At the meeting, Gwen Nuttall, the deputy chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust said: “It is a major building on the site and the work needs to be done as soon as possible but it is also a big project.
“External national funding has already been secured for the project and a tender process has been put in place, with preliminary work to secure the roof already under way.
“It is an outpatients department so won’t affect anyone who is on the wards but it is a busy building, with over 3,000 people a week using it.
“Patients will be decanted to other areas from September where we hope disruption will be kept to a minimum by utilising other areas of the site.”
