We Demand a Plan for the NHS RAAC
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak
We are writing to Rishi Sunak to express our deep concerns about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and the potential dangers it poses to both NHS patients and staff. There have been repeated warnings over a number of years, and the government has failed to take the action required to rectify the situation.
NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards in England have now been issued with letters instructing them to investigate what is happening, and to familiarise themselves with evacuation plans. Given that it has recently been determined by the Health and Safety Executive that “RAAC is now life-expired. It is liable to collapse with little or no notice”, this is a completely inadequate plan from the government. We are writing to the government to demand a robust plan to ensure the urgent safeguarding of NHS patients and staff. Please click below to speak up and add your name.
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To:
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Rishi Sunak,
We are writing to you as a matter of urgency, because we are deeply concerned about the welfare of NHS patients and staff regarding the situation with Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). We do not feel that your government has put forth a robust plan to tackle the situation, and we are seeking urgent answers.
According to the National Audit Office, there are 41 NHS hospitals with RAAC, and 7 of these were built with the material “throughout” [1] The shelf-life of RAAC is said to be 30 years, and this lifespan has been far exceeded. In August 2023 the Health and Safety Executive announced: “RAAC is now life-expired. It is liable to collapse with little or no notice.” [2]
There have been concerns about RAAC for many years, and the concerns are not without sound basis. In 2018, as reported by The Guardian, “the ceiling of the staff room at Singlewell primary school in Gravesend, Kent, collapsed on a Saturday evening having shown signs of structural stress the previous day. No one was hurt but the images of the destroyed room suggested people could have died.”[2]
We understand that all 224 NHS Trusts in England and all Integrated Care Boards have been issued with a letter advising them to investigate their situation locally, and where RAAC has been found, teams have been advised to familiarise themselves with an evacuation plan. It seems that overwhelming responsibility is being placed upon local NHS organisations that may not have the resources to tackle the situation urgently. What’s more, in the event that a ceiling or building did fall, there may be little warning ahead of time. It is unclear how patients and staff would be safely evacuated if this happened.
The situation regarding RAAC is not an isolated failure; there is currently an unmet repair bill in the NHS in England of £10 billion [3]. There have been hundreds of recent sewage leaks into clinical areas including A and E departments and maternity units [4], among other problems. This escalating crisis has been causing significant concern to NHS leaders for many years now, and the UK government has failed to make the necessary investment in capital infrastructure to restore the safe functioning of all NHS buildings.
We, the undersigned, are writing to you to request a robust and urgent plan to tackle the RAAC situation in the NHS, and the wider unmet repairs which are posing safety problems for NHS patients and staff. It is not appropriate to pass the responsibility to local leaders; this is an emergency situation and deserves immediate attention and investment from our government.
We look forward to hearing back from you, and would be happy to meet with you to discuss the situation further if that would be helpful.
Yours,
The EveryDoctor team, along with:
References:
[1]. https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/premises/icbs-asked-to-check-gp-practices-not-built-with-crumbling-concrete/
[2]. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/04/raac-crisis-who-knew-what-w hen-crumbling-concrete-england
[3]. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/13/cost-eradicating-nhs-england-r epairs-backlog
[4]. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64653482