Keighley Airedale Hospital 'in desperate need' of rebuild - MP

Airedale Hospital has exceeded its 30-year lifespan by more than two decades

A "crumbling" hospital in West Yorkshire must be urgently replaced due to "dangerous structural deficiencies," a town's MP has urged.

Engineers have previously warned Keighley's Airedale Hospital, which also serves parts of North Yorkshire, was at risk of collapse.

It was now in "desperate need of a full rebuild" to prevent service closures, Conservative MP Robbie Moore has said.

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust applied for government funding two years ago.

The trust said it was "taking every step possible to maintain safety within the building" while awaiting a decision from the Department for Health and Social Care.

Mr Moore, the MP for Keighley and Ilkley, said he had "lobbied the government on this issue more than any other".

A visit to the hospital for an update on its structural problems last week had been a "sobering reminder that our hospital is in desperate need of a full rebuild", he said.

The MP added: "Sticking plaster solutions will not do to solve Airedale's construction challenges.

"It is high time the government gives Airedale the support it so desperately needs to secure healthcare provision in our area long into the future."

'Urgent need'

The hospital, which serves a population of 220,000, was built in the 1960s with a planned lifespan of 30 years.

It was constructed mostly of a reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a material since known for serious structural deficiencies.

Structural engineers have advised that the Airedale Hospital site should be replaced as soon as possible and certainly no later than 2030.

North Yorkshire County Council said there was "now an urgent need to secure funding for a new hospital".

Andrew Lee, chair of the council's scrutiny health committee, said any reduction in service at the site "would be hard felt by those people in the Yorkshire Dales and further afield that rely on this district general hospital for accessible routine and emergency procedures".

The Airedale NHS trust has installed steel beams to support the hospital's structure and has moved its intensive care and respiratory wards into a new building.

It has said it expected to hear early this year whether its funding bid had been successful.

The application formed part of a £1.7bn package of proposals put forward by the Act as One Health and Care Partnership, which covers the Bradford and Craven districts.

The BBC has approached the Department for Health for a comment.

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