Investigation into new maternity hospital 'a clever ruse' not to answer questions

A Northern Ireland health trust has been accused of using an ongoing investigation into the handover of the new maternity hospital as "a clever ruse" not to answer questions over delays, according to DUP assembly member Diane Dodds.

Belfast Trust executives appeared at Stormont's health committee to explain the issues the project, which is tens of millions over budget and a decade behind schedule.

They said a "management investigation" had begun into the timing and approval of the transfer of the building to the trust in March 2024, despite levels of the bacteria pseudomonas being found in its water system.

The building, on the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), remains empty.

Senior trust officials, Jennifer Welsh and David Porter, faced questions over a catalogue of issues with new buildings, which committee chair Philip McGuigan described as "a scandal".

Dodds said she was "angry" that after several years of problems with the maternity hospital, the trust officials had come to the committee "with a clever ruse" of using the investigation into the handover of the facility "to not answer questions".

"I think that is inappropriate and disrespectful to this committee," she said.

However, Welsh said: "I would want to assure you there is no intention to be inappropriate and there is absolutely no intention to be disrespectful to this committee - absolutely not."

MLAs also heard problems at the new acute mental health facility on the site of Belfast City Hospital meant patients would be moved out and repair work at the building would not be completed until February 2029.

The facility opened in 2019, with the repair bill estimated at £6m.

Patients will be moved to wards on the Knockbracken Healthcare site in south Belfast while the work is carried out.

Other repair bills include £6m for the trust's new energy centre and £15m for the critical care building.

Porter also told the committee that a redesign of the water system at the new children's hospital in Belfast meant a delay in construction and further costs.

The children's hospital project at the RVH has seen several delays since it was first announced back in October 2013.

Costs have risen from an initial £250m to more than two-and-a-half times that amount, with a 10-year delay.

Last April, one of the joint partners in the construction project, BAM Ireland, pulled out of the scheme.

Speaking about the maternity hospital, McGuigan said: "It's a shell. There is no equipment, there's no staff, there's no patients.

"This is a project that has cost £100m to this point of public money and is not operational.... this is to this point, a public scandal."

Welsh said: "We are as frustrated as you are, in relation to everything that has occurred. We very much want to get this building open and in service to the people that need it."

McGuigan said the failure of the trust officials to provide details of the length of the delay and the extra costs involved with the new children's hospital was "very frustrating".

"We are talking about a project here, again of vast importance to the population and health outcomes, and we're talking about something that is costing £670m, and we're asking legitimate questions and can't get answers," he said.