Patients at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shropshire, England will need to be moved as the hospital begins to undertake a project to remove asbestos found in various parts of the building.

According to an article in the Shropshire Star, a hospital manager told the media that asbestos had been found in the children’s and maternity wards at the hospital and that “work to re-encapsulate the asbestos was due to start shortly”.

The costly project is expected to last weeks and is being carried out to contain and manage the asbestos in the wards, noted a spokesperson for the hospital. Patients in some 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 organizations 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 program 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.”

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

“We regret that there will be some relocation of children’s and maternity services while work is under way. We apologize 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,” Rowson said, noted that it would not be necessary to remove the asbestos in question.

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