Belfast Health Trust Faces Nearly £20m More in Building Costs

What changed

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust faces almost £20m in additional costs across two buildings.

At the new Royal Victoria Hospital maternity unit, more than 2,200 valves are being replaced after chemical flushing damaged pipework. Repairs are estimated at £7.8m, or close to £10m if contractors work around the clock. Separately, repairs and patient rehousing at the Acute Mental Health facility have reached £9.4m.

Why it matters

The maternity hospital has never opened. It was handed to the trust in March 2024, but testing later found high levels of pseudomonas aeruginosa in the water system. The building remains closed while the trust deals with the contamination and the damage caused by the response to it.

That pushes the maternity project beyond £100m, adding another expensive delay to a facility already more than a decade late. It was intended to replace the existing Royal Jubilee maternity hospital, but there is still no confirmed opening date.

The chain of events is especially troubling because the chemical flushing used to address the original water problem has led to what a report described as accelerated deterioration in the valves. Many are hidden above ceilings, turning a water-system fault into a major building repair.

The trust has not said whether contractors Graham Construction and Bam Ireland, which jointly handed over the building, or taxpayers will cover the bill. That liability question matters because the final cost remains unsettled, as does the outcome of an investigation into the handover and water-system problems. The investigation is expected to report this month.