‘Massive disruption’ as Pembrokeshire hospital with crumbling RAAC concrete forced to close half of its wards

In what was a full cardiac ward just eight weeks ago, a phone rings constantly, a red-light flashes – but there is no-one there to answer.

The nurses’ station is abandoned, dozens of beds are empty and heart monitors remain plugged in but covered by sheets.

This is the reality of the RAAC concrete crisis in the NHS.

The crumbling material – used between the 1950s and 90s – has forced the Withybush Hospital in Pembrokeshire to shut 50% of its wards – it feels like a ghost hospital.

The seriousness of the situation was uncovered back in May, following surveys of the hospital’s structure.

Malcolm Arnold is the estate manager for Hywel Dda Health Board.

He said: “It was sleepless nights – it was very worrying. To unearth the level of cracking we found…I think we mobilised very, very quickly in having these areas closed off.

“It’s been a huge undertaking – the level of disruption to the whole hospital has been absolutely massive.”

He shows me some of the near 200 props – eight-feet-high metal poles from floor to ceiling – dotted around the downstairs of the hospital, which remains open.

They are there to ensure the ceiling remains in place.

Six of the 12 wards at this major hospital in west Wales are now out of bounds.

Patients have been transferred to other sites, or moved to safe areas in the building.

In the Acute Clinical Decision Unit Sarah Davis was working on the cardiac ward before it was evacuated in August.

She told Sky News: “It’s very eerie up there…the only thing I can think about is how cold it felt. Down here there is life, there are monitors beeping, there’s discussion going on all the time, but upstairs is nothing, you can hear a pin drop. It’s not nice at all.”

The hospital staff have pulled off a huge team effort to keep services running- it is impressive.

But Ms Davis is fully aware that winter is approaching and said the issues were “slowly” being fixed.

“In terms of how we’re going to cope, I’m not quite sure, but we will, because that’s what we do – we adapt,” she said.

“We just get on with it because we’re not important, it’s the patients that are important.”

Back upstairs in the empty corridors Andrew Carruthers – the health board’s director of operations – is overseeing works:

He said: “It’s been incredibly disruptive. I don’t think there’s a director of operations in the NHS in the UK, or the world, that if you told them you’ve got to close half of your inpatient bed capacity on a hospital site within three weeks would think that is a feasible realistic time frame.

“The staff here have been magnificent.”

The Welsh Government is carrying out extensive surveys across all NHS sites in Wales and has given the Withybush £12.8m for remedial works.

“That money will enable us to carry out repair works to the planks that have been identified as high risk. What that doesn’t do thought is provide a fix for the lifetime of the building,” Mr Carruthers added.

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It is clear that while the hospital will be made safe, checks will be needed here indefinitely – and that only a new hospital will remove the risks of RAAC.

“There’s a very real possibility [that] some of the impact that we’re seeing now may not be a one off – and may happen again in the coming years,” Mr Carruthers said.