Shropshire Star

Patients at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will be moved while work is carried out this year to deal with asbestos found in parts of the building.

Hospital managers today said asbes- tos had been found in the children’s and maternity departments and “work to re-incapsulate the asbestos was due to start shortly”.

The vital work, costing a five-figure sum and expected to last weeks, is being carried out to contain and manage the asbestos in the wards.

Parts of the wards will be relocated while the work is carried out.

Trish Rowson, director of service delivery at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “Many older buildings were built using asbestos and all organisations have an important legal duty to understand where asbestos exists in their buildings, to assess any risk and to put effective plans in place to manage that risk.

“This is particularly important in hospitals and forms part of our routine maintenance and survey work.

“As part of our ongoing programme to survey our hospital buildings, we have decided that we need to undertake some remedial work in our children’s and maternity departments at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.Ê

“The asbestos in those buildings is currently managed and contained and a programme of work will start soon to ensure that it continues to be managed and contained in future.

“We regret that there will be some relocation of children’s and maternity services while work is under way. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to reassure patients and families that their health and safety is our top priority while this work is under way.”

Ms Rowson said when assessing the buildings, the trust needed to consider guidance from the Health and Safety Executive.

She said the HSE said if asbestos was safely managed and contained, it did not present a health hazard.

Ms Rowson said: “They also advise organisations that they should not remove asbestos unnecessarily.”