Drone reveals scale of rotten roof

When experts inspected the roof of the Princess of Wales hospital last October, they found an immediate risk to patients.

A “design defect” meant driving rain was being trapped beneath tonnes of concrete tiles, rotting the wooden battens that held them up.

“There was no structural separation between the tiles and the patients in the beds down below, so it was pretty serious,” said architect Jeoff Houlker, who believes the situation could have become “catastrophic” over the winter.

A critical incident was declared at the hospital in Bridgend, south Wales, and the entire first floor – including the intensive care unit (ICU) – was evacuated.

Almost overnight, Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board lost 10 wards, eight theatre spaces and had to relocate the ICU at a time of huge pressure on Welsh hospitals to tackle lengthy waiting lists.

The rapid “decant of services” meant the nine-bed ICU was given a temporary new home in the space previously occupied by eye theatre.

That in turn had to move off-site, to a different hospital – just one example of the huge ripple felt across the entire health board’s estate.

Dr Gareth Roberts, clinical lead for critical care, said a big part of the move was keeping patients’ relatives informed and reassured.

The roof has now been replaced over the original ICU, but work continues to refurbish the unit itself.

Walking around the shell of the ward for the first time since it was evacuated, Dr Roberts admitted feeling a mix of emotions.

“I don’t think it’s what the NHS deserves or needs,” said Dr Roberts.

“It deserves proactive work rather than reactive. But I’m glad we’ve done everything we have safely, and the last few months have shown we are able to be nimble, safe and dynamic.”

Wales-wide efforts to provide more hospital care at home enabled some patients to be discharged, but it is has been hard to escape the impact on planned care.

“The areas that have been a particular challenge are endoscopy, where we’ve lost capacity, and planned orthopaedic operations,” said Paul Mears, chief executive of the health board.

Mr Mears said they had arranged for some additional capacity at the nearby Prince Charles Hospital and Royal Glamorgan Hospital.

“It’s put us back by a few months, but we want to get back on track as quickly as possible because we recognise obviously there are patients who have been waiting a long time,” he added.

Head of nursing, Catherine Theron, said it was crucial to reassure staff and the local community that the changes were only temporary.

“We had a very short time frame to move everyone immediately,” she said.

“It’s really shown the resilience of our teams and the community of this hospital. Everyone has pulled together.”

If there is a silver lining to the upheaval, the closure of a large part of the hospital has meant essential updates to fire safety and IT work could be addressed.

Large parts of the new roof are also now covered in solar panels which – at full capacity – will serve half the hospital’s energy needs.

Across Wales the total maintenance backlog for the NHS estate is approaching £977m – with the vast majority deemed to be high or significant risk.

Health board boss Mr Mears said managing the day-to-day business of healthcare alongside building repairs was a constant juggle.

“It does mean you have to make difficult choices,” he said, adding they were grateful for government assistance and plans to increase the NHS capital budget next year.

“There is always going to be trade-offs. But it’s also about looking at how you can potentially come out of some of the most substandard estate and think about maybe consolidating estate, or creating new, to try and mitigate the risks.”

The hospital’s roof repair work totals nearly £28m and is being funded by the Welsh government.

The first phase of the new 10,000 sq m roof is complete, meaning maternity, neo-natal care and the special care baby unit will return to the site within a few weeks.

The full repairs are expected to be finished by August.