Building to be demolished at Harrogate Hospital after £2m grant from Government to tackle ‘crumbly concrete’ crisis

Although the new funding from the Government is designed to remove RAAC – or ‘crumbly concrete’ – from the town's hospital, Andrew Jones MP said it will also improve the hospital's services overall to the benefit of patients.

“I welcome the grant to Harrogate Hospital," said Mr Jones

"The hospital’s plans are more ambitious and more creative than simple RAAC replacement.

"They are seeking to bring together other budgets to create two new operating theatres and a day case ward.

"This will enable the trust to treat an additional 2,700 day case patient procedures every year.

The additional funding for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust comes after Tom Gordon, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, took a petition to Downing Street in December demanding action on problems at Harrogate Hospital, parts of which date back to 1975, caused by 'crumbly concrete' or RAAC.

The latter stands for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight material that is less durable than traditional concrete and has a life expectancy of just 30 years before it runs the risk of collapse.

Speaking last month, Mr Gordon said: "It is simply not good enough that staff at Harrogate Hospital are working in such an environment and that patients are treated in a property where props are required to hold up the ceiling to stop the potential collapse of the building.

“The Conservative government can’t even keep the roof over patients' heads safe, let alone run a health service that gets people the treatment that they deserve on time”

The problem first emerged last year after engineers found 2,500 panels containing RAAC across the Harrogate Hospital estate.

In response, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust submitted a £20m funding bid to the Government.

The announcement of the new £2m grant for Harrogate Hospital does not mean the local NHS Trust to to do the whole job.

Instead, it enables it to do some immediate work and draw up plans to do the rest of the work in phases.

That’s essential because to being the whole scheme to fruition people have to be moved out of sections while the rest of the project is done.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones said, despite its limitations, the new funding is a significant step forward for the town's hospital.

"This is an exciting project," he said.

"I’ve discussed this many times with the hospital and raised this with the health secretary, Victoria Atkins, as recently as Wednesday.

"I will continue working with the hospital to make these exciting plans reality.”

The problem of RAAC was identified in a number of areas at Harrogate Hospital on Lancaster Park Road, including the therapy service department, two corridors, two plant rooms and an area which is not accessed by patients.

The £2m will be used to relocate services in the therapies department so the building can be demolished and rebuilt.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: “We are currently progressing further funding requests from NHS England to support work in 2024/25 and beyond.

"Work will continue to be undertaken to address any further issues that are found.”