{"id":323434,"date":"2025-08-06T20:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323434\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T20:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:47:12","slug":"patients-to-be-rehoused-during-work-to-fix-damp-at-belfast-mental-health-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323434\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients to be rehoused during work to fix damp at Belfast mental health unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work to fix the issues will take approximately three and a half years with estimated costs of up to \u00a36m.\n<\/p>\n

A \u201cdecant ward\u201d will be established while water and damp issues are dealt with in wards at the Acute Mental Health Inpatient Centre (AMHIC) on the Belfast City Hospital site.<\/p>\n

The centre was completed in June 2019 and was designed to provide inpatient accommodation with ensuite facilities for up to 80 patients.<\/p>\n

The Belfast Trust said that despite the rectification of a \u201cnumber of defects during and post construction\u201d, the building has \u201ccontinued to suffer from water ingress, including pinhole leaks within pipework\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said this has \u201cresulted in adverse implications to the fabric of the building\u201d.<\/p>\n

Work to fix the issues will take approximately three and a half years with estimated costs of \u00a35.5 million to \u00a36 million.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The mental health unit is in the grounds of Belfast City Hospital (Paul Faith\/PA)<\/p>\n

News Catch Up – Wednesday 6th August <\/p>\n

A trust statement said: \u201cFollowing exploratory works in two of the bedrooms in February 2025, and subsequent moisture mapping and additional survey works across the building, the trust has now developed a proposed route forward for addressing the damage caused by the water ingress and replacing the existing water system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trust is currently working with its legal advisers to appoint independent specialists to undertake a comprehensive review of the water system and any potential sources of water ingress and to help identify liability for the costs of the remediation work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trust said the safety of patients continues to be its main priority.<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cTo allow the work to progress with least disruption to services for vulnerable patients, the trust will refurbish a ward at a time by decanting one of the AMHIC wards to another facility for the duration of the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cA ward on the trust\u2019s Knockbracken site will be refurbished to be used as the decant ward during the refurbishment period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the main refurbishment works are undertaken the trust will continue to monitor the condition of the existing wards within the AMHIC building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis specialist facility has been designed to cater for the specific needs and risks of managing acute mental health patients and remains the safest place for these service users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trust will continue to monitor for evidence of damp in any patient area of the building and carry out localised remediation as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Health<\/p>\n

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt <\/p>\n

The troubled Belfast Health Trust has been rocked by a series of problems in recent months.<\/p>\n

Its former chairman Ciaran Mulgrew was sacked<\/a> by Stormont Health Minister Mike Nesbitt last month.<\/p>\n

The minister said a \u201cfresh start\u201d was required for the organisation after a number of controversies.<\/p>\n

In May, a leaked report into staff culture at the cardiac surgery unit<\/a> at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast raised concerns about an intolerable working environment and a pattern of consistently poor behaviour.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the delivery of two flagship hospitals on the Royal site \u00ad\u2013 a maternity hospital and children\u2019s hospital \u2013 have been hit by delays and difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work to fix the issues will take approximately three and a half years with estimated costs of up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[116893,34912,105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-323434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-belfast-city-hospital","9":"tag-department-of-health","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114983786495527370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}