Huddersfield Royal Infirmary must find another £3.7m to avert a ‘catastrophic failure’ caused by its ageing buildings.

Health chiefs have calculated that HRI needs to spend £3,724,000 on its outdated premises to prevent major disruptions to patients as well as safety lapses resulting in serious injuries and compensation claims.

Hospital bosses have estimated they need to find a further £6.3m to fix other tired sections of the premises which pose a ‘significant risk’ of disruption to services.

And over a third (34%) of patient occupied space was deemed not fit for purpose in 2014/15, according to figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Trust director of estates, Lesley Hill, said: “Tough decisions have to be made on a building complex of such a scale and age and in challenging times the work has to be done in stages with the most urgent given top priority.

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on Acre Street in Lindley
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on Acre Street in Lindley

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“Patient safety is the key factor in any decision on estates work and we will always prioritise investment to ensure that our premises refit to provide safe, quality healthcare for our local communities.

“HRI celebrates its 60th anniversary next year and a public building of that age requires a rolling programme of maintenance and investment to ensure it remains fit for delivering safe, quality healthcare for our patients and their families.

“An ongoing programme of theatres’ refurbishment underway which will leave the hospital with some of the most up-to- date facilities in the country when it is finished next year.

The wards at HRI are also being virtually rebuilt, redesigned and refurbished one by one to turn 1960s out-of-date patient accommodation into wards fit to deliver 21st healthcare including smaller bays, single rooms and en suite facilities.”

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Acre Street, Lindley, Huddersfield.

But the high cost is likely to be a bitter pill for Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) to swallow as the trust is already in debt – and is expected to end the next financial year in the red.

The cost of clearing the hospital’s backlog of ‘high risk’ maintenance issues has rocketed from £330,000 in 2013/14 to £3,724,000 in 2014/15.

According to NHS guidance, ‘high risk’ issues are those ‘that must be addressed with urgent priority in order to prevent catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury and/or prosecution.’

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital

The hospital’s backlog of ‘significant risk’ issues was estimated at £6.3m in 2014/15, a three-quarters increase over the previous year.

‘Significant risk’ issues are defined at those ‘that require expenditure in the short-term but should be effectively managed as a priority so as not to cause undue concern to statutory enforcement bodies or risk to healthcare delivery or safety.’

The Lindley hospital opened in 1965.

By comparison Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, which opened in 2001, had no high risk or significant risk maintenance backlog.

Dewsbury District Hospital, over half of which was built between 1985 and 1994, had no high risk backlog but managers calculated it needed £3m to clear the hospital’s ‘significant risk’ issues.

CHFT said it invested £7m last year on modernising the hospital – including its operating theatres and wards – and opening a new chemotherapy ward and a new outpatients unit at Acre Mills, across the road.