Closed Sheffield hospital ward still not ready to reopen, hospital bosses say

The private finance initiative funded Robert Hadfield wing at Northern General Hospital was closed in December 2018 after it was found to be in breach of fire safety rules.

Owners Kajima began undertaking remedial work on the structure last year, with work initially only expected to take a matter of months.

However, almost 18 months after the building first closed, and in the midst of the worst public health crisis in a generation, the ward has still not reopened.

One Sheffield Teaching Hospitals staff member, who did not want to be named, said: “There are 84 cubicles in that block which could isolate patients with Covid-19 perfectly.

“We need this building now as this thing is about to explode. If the Chinese can knock out hospital buildings in weeks surely they can sort this out.”

Hospital bosses, however, today revealed the building was still unsuitable for patient care.

Michael Harper, chief operating officer at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Work on the Hadfield Wing is still underway and therefore it is not currently habitable for patient care.

“The scale of work still required means that as part of our planning to manage the COVID-19 outbreak we are exploring a range of options to support how we manage the outbreak rather than relying on the Hadfield building.

“We did build some new wards last year when Hadfield closed and opened additional beds elsewhere in the trust so we do not have any fewer beds available because of the Hadfield closure.”

The Hadfield wing was opened in 2007 after being constructed under a private finance initiative contract by Japanese company Kajima.

It has already cost the NHS £37m - almost £12m more than it cost to build - and is expected to set the health service back £122m over the full length of the contract.

After the Hadfield wing was closed in 2018, two new wards were built at Northern General Hospital last year at a cost to the trust of £7m.