The work is expected to take 20 months to complete
The latest round of hospital maintenance work has been announced at Hull Royal Infirmary, the NHS Humber Health Partnership has revealed. Local teams are preparing to scale the building to carry out the work which includes safety checks and a fire safety upgrade following recent changes in legislation.
Work is expected to take 20 months to complete, with costs yet to be finalised. A further programme of work will follow, this time to improve the public service lift infrastructure.
The preparatory works are currently underway, but it is likely to be the New Year before patients and visitors start to see noticeable work taking place. The work is not expected to cause any disruption to patient care as maintenance teams will not require access to wards or clinical facilities.
This is because the planned activity will take place on the tower block exterior. However, some access restrictions for pedestrians and vehicles may be put in place temporarily around the base of the building.
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Tom Myers, Group Director of Estates, Facilities and Development for NHS Humber Health Partnership, said: “Monitoring a hospital estate the size of Hull Royal Infirmary is no mean feat. It’s a constant cycle of installations, improvements, repairs and maintenance to ensure our buildings and facilities are in the best possible shape to allow staff to deliver great care.
“Aside from very minor repairs, it’s been more than decade since any significant maintenance works were carried out on the outside of the tower block, so over the next few months, passers-by should expect to see this latest round of maintenance kicking off. As part of this work, we’ll be upgrading the building’s external fire protection, so we’ll see parts of the frontage being removed and replaced.
Mr Myers also addressed the upcoming lift maintenance and said he understood certain frustrations. He said: “We’ll also begin some much-needed improvements to our ageing lift system to improve its reliability, as we know how much frustration having lifts out of order, especially during busy periods, can cause in a building of this size.
“Given the nature and size of the tower block, we’ve been working closely with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service to formulate and agree a plan which ensures we meet all of the new requirements and that they are assured of our safety measures in the meantime. In fact, we’re really grateful for their advice on this as Hull Royal really isn’t your standard workplace or health centre, and with thousands of people walking through the doors on any given day, safety has to be our top priority.”