Removal of Wycombe Hospital cladding at risk of falling approved by Bucks Council

Charlie Smith

24 June 2024 at 8:45 am·1-min read

Repairs to Wycombe Hospital's tower have been completed, although it is still covered in <i>(Image: LDRS)</i> — Repairs to Wycombe Hospital's tower have been completed, although it is still covered in *(Image: LDRS)*

The removal of cladding from the tower block at Wycombe Hospital has been approved by Buckinghamshire Council.

Dozens of defective tiles have been stripped off the 1960s building to stop them hitting people, according to Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

In a statement it said: “A structural inspection of the site encountered significant panel defects and found the exterior envelope of the tower building to be in very poor condition as a result of the failure of key components of the building’s fabric.

“Due to the health and safety risks associated with the cladding panels, including injury/death from a falling cladding panel, the identified 114 cladding panels have been removed.”

The confirmation of the removal of cladding from the tower came in the Trust’s application for a certificate of lawfulness for the work, which the council granted.

The work followed structural inspections of the tower in 2021 and 2023, which revealed that seeping water had corroded panel fixtures and that concrete in the structure supporting the panels was ‘generally of very low strength’.

The eight-storey block, which dates to 1965, houses the hospital’s intensive care unit and operating theatres, but is in ‘poor condition’.

The Trust pays £2 million a year just to continue to monitor the condition of the building and to ensure that clinical services can be safely delivered.

The tower faces an £80 million repairs backlog and continues to suffer from issues such as ‘water ingress’ from failed guttering and blocked downpipes, which have contributed to its ‘deterioration’.

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