'Scandal': More delay for ten years overdue £97m maternity hospital

The announcement that the opening of Belfast's new maternity hospital could be delayed is "nothing short of a scandal", according to a member of Stormont's health committee.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Diane Dodds said it was "10 years too late and double the cost".

On Monday, Northern Ireland's Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announced the opening of the hospital could be delayed by another 28 months, due to ongoing building work problems including dangerous bacteria found in the water system.

The Belfast Trust has said while the delays were frustrating it was vital that water safety issues were addressed before vulnerable patients were cared for.

Nesbitt told the assembly he could not "soften the news" and has asked for an external expert to review if the decision taken is the best one, and if parts of the hospital, at the Royal Victoria Hospital site, could be opened in the meantime.

But Dodds told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme it had been 15 months since the building had been handed over to the Belfast Trust and "most worryingly of all, the health minister said that none of the options might actually solve the problem".

She said the health minister should "get a grip" of the situation.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) in Northern Ireland has described the latest delay on the opening of Belfast's new maternity hospital as "extremely disappointing" and "frustrating".

Anne Wilson, the RCM's interim director said that it is "crucial the water safety issues are addressed before women, their babies, and families can be cared for safely in the new hospital".

She said the ongoing delays are "frustrating for women and their families".

"Our members will continue to deliver safe compassionate midwifery care to women within the existing maternity unit, in community settings and in women's homes across Belfast," she added.

The new maternity hospital, which is based in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, is already 10 years behind schedule and has cost £97m so far.

The trust took possession of the five-storey building from the contractors, Graham Bam Healthcare Partnership, in March 2024.

It then began a "clinical commissioning phase" - a process of ensuring a safe transition of service to the new site.

Just a few months later in July, the trust said that during testing of water outlets, high levels of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were discovered in the water system.

Pseudomonas infection killed three babies at Belfast's Royal Jubilee Hospital in 2012.

The infection does not usually affect healthy people but infants and people with weakened immune systems are vulnerable.

During last Thursday's health committee, it emerged that the health trust faced three options to try to fix the water system.

These included:

• Ongoing testing of individual water taps across the building
• Installing a "discreet checking system" for high-risk areas including the neonatal unit
• Pulling out the entire water system, which was described by management as "excessive"

Management has chosen the second option, which they said was the "safest" way to proceed as vulnerable babies would be protected.

Diane Dodds said the delay had come at a time when there are other problems at the hospital.

She said she had asked Stormont's health committee would "this scandal of wasting public money" be within the remit for "special measures", in which a trust or facility is rated as inadequate, but was told no.

"I think clearly that the health minister should consider this a matter for special measures."

She said that people "deserve much better" and patient safety should be paramount.

"It is outrageous that we don't know whether it will be 28 months or longer.

"The responsibility for the failure in relation to this lies squarely with the Belfast Trust."

Also speaking on the programme, Patricia McKeown from the union UNISON said she was "cynical" of the frustrations of politicians when it comes to the delay.

She added that the collapse of devolution for long periods since it was proposed maternity services should be located in a new hospital on the Royal Hospital site in 1999 had not helped.

A spokesperson for the Belfast Trust said the significant delays were "deeply" frustrating for everyone involved in the project, but it was vital the water safety issues were addressed before vulnerable patients were cared for.

They added that their proposed solution to the problem was arrived at after a review of all "available information regarding the water systems within the new Maternity Hospital".

"The work included in the preferred option will take, in total, 24 months and then four months to move staff, patients, and services into the new hospital."