New Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh delayed

The new hospital had been due to open in autumn 2017

The completion of a £150m children's hospital in Edinburgh will be delayed for months after construction firms entered administration and provisional liquidation.

The new Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh was due to open in autumn 2017.

However NHS Lothian now expects the date to be pushed back to spring 2018.

Dunne Group entered administration, followed by JB Brickwork going into provisional liquidation.

Both firms have temporarily stopped work at the site and the health board said further delays have been caused by "unfavourable winter weather and unavoidable technical construction problems".

New Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh is now not due to be completed until spring 2018

The consortium building the hospital, IHS Lothian, has increased the workforce and working hours in order to offset delays and has also altered construction methods.

Jim Crombie, NHS Lothian acting chief executive, said: "We will continue to work closely with IHS Lothian Ltd to ensure that our state-of-the-art new hospital is delivered as soon as possible.

"Projects of this scale and of this nature are very rarely straightforward and bring with them many complex and sometimes unavoidable challenges.

"It is important to note that these alterations to the construction timetable will not result in any additional costs to NHS Lothian.

"Whilst this change is frustrating for our patients and staff, we must not forget that construction of this impressive new building is continuing and that much work has already been achieved.

"In addition, the project has already created a host of new entrant jobs for local people, including apprentices and graduate opportunities."

Work continues on the site while NHS Lothian awaits a revised building schedule.

The completion of the £150m children's hospital will be delayed for months