Minister orders report into trust water quality monitoring

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt was 'concerned' about the amount of repeated cases

Northern Ireland's Health Minister has asked health trusts for a report on how they monitor and maintain their pipes and water quality after it emerged that leaking pipes caused £4m worth of damage to a hospital.

Mike Nesbitt said he was concerned at repeated cases of pipework and building defect issues after the damage emerged at the Acute Mental Health Inpatient Centre at Belfast City Hospital.

It is the latest in a series of building defects across the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust which have spanned a decade.

BBC News NI has learned that water has been dripping from various pipes since 2022, causing corrosion within the hot water system and damage to walls and floors.

The health regulator, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), has issued a formal notice to the Belfast Trust to make a number of improvements to comply with relevant regulations.

All of this has posed many questions including; how buildings are signed off by the Belfast Trust and at what cost to the public purse?

RQIA noted "lack of progress" over ligature risks with doors

'Holes detected in hot water pipework'

An improvement notice is a formal notice issued by an inspector when they believe that a contravention of statutory provisions has occurred or is likely to continue.

It is a requirement for the recipient to make improvements to comply with relevant regulations.

The Belfast Trust says it has started a refurbishment and redecoration project, which it estimates could cost millions of pounds.

The mental health unit provides 80 acute mental health ensuite bedrooms, including six psychiatric intensive care beds.

While the centre remains open, it is understood some bedrooms are being treated for damage, including mould.

In a statement, the trust said the repairs would include replacing water pipes.

It added: "Localised repairs were undertaken but further investigation has identified pin-holing to hot water pipework in other parts of the building.

"Repairs have continued and currently one room is not in use and service delivery has not been impacted."

"Analysis of the domestic hot water pipework has indicated erosion corrosion and galvanic corrosion to be the cause, pseudomonas is not a factor."

The trust said the construction team which built the facility had worked on several other health estate projects.

Pseudomonas has been discovered in the new Belfast maternity hospital

In a statement to BBC News NI, the RQIA said at an inspection in April/May 2024 noted “longstanding issues” affecting the unit’s water supply, which had an “impact on patient experience and safety”.

It said the trust’s senior management had given assurances that relevant agencies had been contacted to progress repairs and resolve issues.

However, separately, BBC News NI can also reveal that in the same inspection the RQIA noted a lack of progress by the trust to address the ligature risks associated with the internal doors and handles in the unit over a “significant period of time”.

The RQIA said it was “not assured by the governance arrangements to manage the associated risk” and because of these concerns it issued an improvement notice which the trust must comply to by 17 February 2025.

The intervention followed a review of the Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) report relating to the death of a patient in the unit in May 2020.

'Delay could be up to 5 years'

This latest news follows the delayed opening of the new maternity hospital at the Royal Victoria Hospital due to the high presence of a bacteria pseudomonas in the system.

The delay could be up to five years as repairs are extensive including ripping out ceilings to restore infected water systems.

It has been one problem after another for the Belfast Health Trust.

BBC News NI has put several questions to the trust regarding its ongoing building problems.

Independent review of water systems

The opening of the Critical Care building in 2019 was also delayed by eight years following ventilation, sewage and drainage problems.

The 12-storey building in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital had been dogged by problems.

It is understood millions of additional pounds had to be spent correcting flaws; including ripping out equipment that had become out-of-date due to the ongoing delay.

In a briefing to MLAs, the trust said problems with the maternity building are separate to those encountered in the Critical Care project.

The latter was due to the discovery of pipework corrosion, whereas the new maternity involves the detection of pseudomonas within the domestic water systems.

The Belfast Trust has said it is currently commissioning an independent review of the water systems.

Alongside that and subject to its outcome, the trust is also developing remediation options for the water systems.

'Complex challenges'

Nesbitt said he "fully understood the complex challenges of managing and maintaining NI’s hospital estate, particularly during a prolonged period of constrained capital budgets".

However, he added that it was an important issue "not just as a Minister but as a taxpayer”.