Outpatient clinics at Withybush reopen following RAAC inspections

Outpatient clinics at a Welsh hospital which were relocated due to the discovery of faulty concrete will now return to the site.

Six of Withybush Hospital’s 12 wards and several outpatients and clinic rooms were closed last summer after a significant amount of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) planks were found in the building.

The material that was commonly used in the construction of buildings between the 1960s and 1990s.

Hywel Dda University Health Board declared an internal major incident in order to identify the scale and impact on the site and carry out urgent survey and repair work.

All Outpatient services affected by the RAAC work – including Gastroenterology, General Medicine and Plastic Surgery (with visiting clinicians from Swansea Bay University Health Board) – found temporary homes while the building was repaired.

The health board announced on Tuesday (October 29) that the Outpatients A building is now fully operational and ready to welcome patients.

Relocated

Hywel Dda University Health Board’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Carruthers said: “We are really pleased that most of the Outpatients services which were relocated while we worked to repair the RAAC-affected outpatients’ clinical areas have now returned to Withybush.”

Because of the return of outpatient consultations to Withybush, patients are being asked to check their appointment correspondence to ensure that they attend the correct venue for their appointments.

Mr Carruthers said that the health board would write to patients to confirm the date, time and location of appointments or ring patients whose appointments are imminent.

He said: “We urge everybody to please read the appointment letter carefully and note any change of venue, as appointments previously held at a community-healthcare sites may now have returned to Withybush.”

Temporary closure

Although all wards affected by RAAC were re-opened in April this year, work will continue until April 2025 on the hospital’s ground floors and affected wards will need to be temporarily closed while re-surveying work takes place at the end of this year and in to 2025.

Re-inspection surveys will begin on the ground floor areas affected by RAAC across 2025 and into 2026.

However, the kitchen has now re-opened and the therapies area – including physiotherapy – is on schedule to re-open in mid-November.

Work began on the same day emergency care (SDEC) area in August with the work expected to be finished by the end of the month and operational for mid-November.

Work on the pharmacy area is expected to begin in November and completed within the month.

Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Sam Rowlands says Wales’ hospitals need regular surveying to ensure patients lives are not being put at risk.

He said: “With our hospitals crumbling and leaking across Wales, the Labour Welsh Government needs to get real and put serious capital investment on the table to repair the NHS’ infrastructure.”