NHS CUTS and privatisation could lead to a Grenfell-style blaze in British hospitals, campaigners warned yesterday after flammable material used in the destroyed tower block was also found at a Glasgow hospital.

Kingspan Kooltherm K15 insulation boards were fitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital super-complex which opened in 2015, health bosses said.
These were of the same make as those used at Grenfell Tower, where a fire left 80 people confirmed dead so far and hundreds homeless.

Brookfield Multiplex, which worked on the Glasgow hospital campus, also built Wembley Stadium.

But NHS campaign groups along with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) warned over fire safety in British hospitals, pointing to a staggering £5 billion maintenance backlog across the service.

Their latest warning cames as emergency services worked on the heavily damaged Weybridge Health Centre, which caught fire on Wednesday night.
There were no injuries in the fire, but dozens of nearby residents were evacuated.

They said the discovery in Glasgow could be the tip of the iceberg and called for an end to the current system, where safety checks can be carried out by the builders themselves.

Last year Skanska, a firm better known for its participation in construction industry blacklisting, was forced to carry out “remedial work” at a hospital built under new Labour’s disastrous private finance initiative (PFI) in Coventry following fears that fire protection measures were inadequate.

Peterborough City Hospital, another controversial PFI build, was issued an official enforcement notice from the Cambridgeshire Fire Service in 2016 after it warned of “problems with how the hospital had been constructed relating to fire resistance of the internal compartments.”

FBU national officer Dave Green said the union is “extremely concerned about the risks posed by poor fire safety in hospitals and schools built for profit, which seems to go in tandem with an astonishing lack of care both for those who use these facilities and for the firefighters who are called to the scene when things go wrong.

“Buildings need to have clear and accessible fire exits and be made of quality materials that are resistant to fire — there can’t be shortcuts when it comes to safety.

“The FBU would like to see the introduction of independent inspections of all public buildings before they are used. The current system where such checks can be carried out by the builders themselves is clearly unsafe.”

Health Campaigns Together spokesman Dr John Lister said: “Before these latest checks even began, ministers and NHS chiefs should have known that even some of the newest hospitals, built under the costly private finance initiative, had already been flagged as fire hazards — while the older hospitals have run up a £5bn maintenance backlog that makes it most likely that they too have unresolved fire hazard issues.

“The neglect of these vital public assets over the past seven years in the name of austerity and cost-saving is a national disgrace.”

He said NHS trusts including those in Kent, Nottingham and Cambridge have been stung into urgent action with further problems identified at Walsall Manor Hospital, Peterborough City Hospital and the Royal Derby.

“The NHS is already paying through the nose for these over-priced contracts, now we find they have not even delivered safe buildings.”

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is one of the safest buildings in Britain in terms of fire engineering.

“Multiplex, the main contractor for the hospital construction, has assured us that the Kingspan Kooltherm K15 insulation boards were properly installed to meet Scotland’s stringent building and fire safety regulations.

A vigil was held last night in the shadow of Grenfell Tower, the first of several commemorations expected as the one-month anniversary approaches.
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