Belfast Health Trust questioned over hospital delays

A member of Stormont's health committee has asked if the Belfast Health Trust should be placed on "special measures" considering the delays and costs surrounding Belfast's new maternity hospital.

Senior trust executives and Department of Health officials were summoned to the committee following further revelations about the facility, which is almost a decade behind schedule.

It emerged that in the worst-case scenario of fixing the problems there could be a further delay of up to four years with an additional cost of up to £9m.

A potentially dangerous bacteria was first discovered in the water systems at the hospital in 2022 and means there is no date yet for its opening.

Experts are currently carrying a review into how significant the problem is at the site at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

About £50,000 is to be spent repairing the latest issue with medical gas pipework, however on Thursday the committee heard that the worst-case scenario of water pipe repairs could run into many millions.

A hospital trust or facility is placed in special measures when its rated as being "inadequate"; when questions are raised over leadership or when it is unable to make sufficient improvements in a reasonable timeframe.

Typically to handle all this someone from outside the trust is appointed to oversee what is happening.

In what was billed as a fact-finding exercise into what has gone wrong at the maternity hospital, the committee's temporary chair Linda Dillon said she was "absolutely confused" following a briefing by the trust's interim chief executive Maureen Edwards.

"It is very comprehensive what you have given us, but I am confused still about where the responsibility lay," Dillon said.

"Learning is one thing, but if there is accountability then that also needs to play its part.

"If there are people who didn't do the right thing or who made a mistake or knew that something different should have been done, then we need to know and understand that, because it was public money."

Ms Edwards said that the full report into the issue of the pseudomonas bacteria at the hospital would determine three potential courses of action.

The worst case was that the entire water pipework would be replaced at a cost of £7-9m and could take three to four years, she told assembly members.

"I recognise, and I indeed share, the health committee's frustration and the public's frustration with the delays and the cost increases associated with the maternity hospital scheme," she said.

"Our focus at this juncture is obviously to safely open a 21st century hospital that the mothers and babies of Northern Ireland deserve, but we know that needs to be safe."