Mike Nesbitt must take control as delays and cost overruns plague Belfast’s new regional maternity hospital - The Irish News view

THE new regional maternity hospital’s difficult birth continues, with the latest delays centred on an unspecified issue with medical gas pipework. This joins existing problems in the hospital’s water pipes, which contain high levels of the nasty sounding pseudomonas bacteria.

MLAs were told yesterday that the bacteria has been found in 459 water outlets, 36% of the building’s total; Belfast trust says sorting this out will mean a “significant” new delay. This is unacceptably imprecise for what is clearly a much-needed new facility.

It is also unclear how long it will take to remedy the problem with the gas system. Nor is it yet known what all this will cost.

These are just the latest embarrassments to afflict developments at the Royal Victoria Hospital site in Belfast, where a new children’s hospital has also been badly held back and where the critical care centre, which eventually opened in 2020, was almost eight years late and £60 million over-budget.

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If all had gone to plan, the first babies born in the regional maternity hospital would be about to celebrate their ninth birthdays. It is now not even certain if maternity services will be established at the hospital by next year. Perhaps the building is doomed to never be finished, and no babies will ever be born in it. According to an update from the Audit Office earlier this year, the estimated cost has spiralled from £57.2m to £97.1m during the almost 10-year delay.

If all had gone to plan, the first babies born in the new maternity hospital would be about to celebrate their ninth birthdays. It is now not even certain if the hospital will open by next year

A similar cloud of haplessness hangs over the regional children’s hospital. It is not expected to be completed until 2029 - by which stage it will be nine years late - at a cost of £589.6m, more than double the original £223m estimate.

The taxpayer suffers twice. First, because of the harm these delays are inflicting upon the health service and patients, and second, through the apparent squander of public money.

To help put the sums involved into some perspective, it is worth remembering that earlier this month health minister Mike Nesbitt complained that his department was £100m short of the cash it needed to meet pay demands. Many new hospital and social care staff could have been recruited for the cumulative cost of the delays at the Royal.

Health and social care already devours more than half of Stormont’s budget. This is unsustainable, especially when investment is so badly needed in education, infrastructure, housing and every other aspect of our public services.

Mr Nesbitt has repeatedly made the case that he needs more money. That may be so, but it is also clear that he needs to urgently get to grips with whatever malaise is afflicting his department and, in this case, Belfast trust.