Still delays to National Treatment Centre ward at Forth Valley Royal Hospital after 'safety issues' found

It is to be used for patients across Scotland and will not be open to local patients until "waiting times across Scotland are equalised".

In July 2022, NHS Forth Valley said the centre would enable an extra 1500 operations to be carried out every year, mainly hip and knee joint replacement surgery.

The new ward was to be the final part of a £17 million investment which also funded the opening of two additional operating theatres in FVRH and a state-of-the-art MRI scanner.

But while these two phases of the project are already operational, the inpatient ward has been dogged with issues almost from the start.

In October 2022 around 48 large modular units, which make up the main building blocks for the new ward, were placed by crane onto the construction site.

However, a year later the ward was still not completed after NHS trouble-shooters identified issues with the building project.

During a review by NHS Scotland Assure several areas of concern around ventilation, fire safety and flooding were highlighted.

NHS Assure inspectors found two significant and 19 major issues with the project, including a lack of detail within the fire strategy, non-compliance with some NHS guidance and a lack of detail on pre-commissioning checks.

Set up to monitor the quality, safety and running of health board construction projects, NHS Assure said if the issues were not addressed they could "potentially compromise the safety of patients and staff".

An issue with water getting into the site that resulted in damage and mould growth on internal walls was also spotted during one of the inspections.

Without a satisfactory NHS Assure review, new health facilities cannot open to the public.

Despite local health officials saying they were making “good progress” to remedy the problems, two years later and the ward is still not open to treat patients.

This week the health board said they were awaiting Falkirk Council to come back with approval for the plan which would allow the work to be completed.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said: “The contractor for the new National Treatment Centre (NTC) inpatient ward has submitted details of a proposed solution to address the remaining outstanding issues (which relate to pipework and fire compliance regulations) to Falkirk Council’s Building Standards Department.

"The Building Standards Department asked for some additional information and clarification and the contractor is awaiting feedback on their proposed solution in order to confirm next steps.

"Once a solution has been approved and agreed by all relevant parties, a detailed workplan will to be developed to take forward the required changes along with a timetable for the completion of this work.

"In the meantime, an interim NTC service continues to operate at Forth Valley Royal Hospital to deliver operations for patients from other NHS Boards until the new NTC inpatient ward is operational.”

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “Falkirk Council Building Standards continues to work closely with the project’s design team, maintaining ongoing communication throughout the application process.

"This work is being carried out in collaboration with the Scottish Building Standards Hub and NHS Assure to resolve the remaining outstanding matters to ensure regulatory compliance.”