Minister voices concern over staff engagement in maternity hospital review

The Health Minister has voiced concern that some Belfast Trust staff may not have fully engaged with a review into the delays and overspend at its troubled new maternity hospital.

Mike Nesbitt was it would not be acceptable for any member of the trust staff to not participate properly in the investigation into what had gone wrong with the long-delayed project.

In the summer, Mr Nesbitt told MLAs that the opening of the hospital could be hit by further delay, potentially of more than two years.

He also said that there was no guarantee that remediation works planned by the Belfast Trust at the cost of millions of pounds at the site would solve the issue of bacteria in the building’s water system.

It was disclosed last year that the hospital’s opening would be significantly delayed after high levels of pseudomonas aeruginosa (PSA) were found.

The hospital, which was already several years late and over budget, had been expected to open this year after the trust took possession of the new building last March.

In the Assembly on Monday, DUP MLA Diane Dodds had asked the minister why a review into what had gone wrong had been “discontinued”.

Mrs Dodds also pressed Mr Nesbitt for reassurances around establishing the financial liability for the “scandalous situation” as she suggested the cost to address the issues could be £9 million.

The minister said he wanted to get to the bottom of what happened.

“We want to make sure we understand what happened, why it happened, and who was responsible for it happening, but I’m not going to jump the gun, but I’ll just assure the member that when we find out who is responsible, we will take the appropriate action,” he said.

On Mrs Dodds’s question about the trust’s review, Mr Nesbitt replied: “It is my understanding, but I await a formal briefing on this, that a couple of the workforce in the Belfast Trust perhaps weren’t as forthcoming as we might have expected them to be in terms of engagement in that review process.

“So I will await a formal briefing, and then I will make my decision, but I want to assure the member it is not acceptable to me if a member of the workforce of the Belfast Trust, or indeed the Department of Health, is not fully engaging in any review or investigation into what has gone wrong and has cost an awful lot (to the) public purse, and, more importantly, has delayed the opening of that maternity hospital which is badly needed for the women of this country.”