£400,000 for fire safety work at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

Fire safety tests have been undertaken at hospitals in the UK after external cladding was thought to have contributed to the spread of the fire which led to the deaths of at least 80 people at Grenfell Tower.

Cladding on buildings throughout Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust have been found to be low risk following fire safety checks.

But bosses have announced they are spending £400,000 to improve the integrity of the fire compartment walls in the ward block at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Martin Foster, associate director of estates at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), said: “We would like to offer reassurance that only a very small amount of cladding is present on buildings throughout Sath and an assessment of the cladding shows it to be of low risk due to its location and the nature of its construction.

“The trust has reported the results of these assessments, which were conducted by the trust’s fire safety advisor, to NHS Improvement and we will be following any national guidance that is released in future regarding building cladding.

“SaTH has significantly improved fire safety at our main hospital sites over the past three years and has spent approximately £2.3 million upgrading the fire doors, fire alarms, fire detection systems and by sub-dividing buildings into a number of compartments to restrict the spread of a fire.

"A further £400,000 has been allocated to improve the integrity of the fire compartment walls in the ward block at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. This work is expected to commence later this month.”

It comes as safety checks at other hospitals serving Shropshire have uncovered issues.

Hospital bosses at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton have been urged to fix 'combustible' cladding as soon as possible because of problems with its Heart and Lung Centre, which takes in patients from Shropshire and the wider Midlands region.

The cladding at New Cross Hospital will not be removed until a suitable replacement can be found, chiefs have said. The material, which covers both ends of the Heart and Lung Centre, failed a safety test earlier this month after new measures were brought in following the Grenfell Tower disaster. Cladding on the building was found to include Aluminium Composite material and failed a combustibility test.

Bosses said the material did not pose an immediate danger but that it would be removed and replaced in the future.

The building passed all fire safety regulations in place when it was built in 2004.

So far six NHS organisations have submitted building material samples that have failed combustibility tests – including New Cross. No further buildings at the hospital are due to be tested.