Carillion collapse: Opening of Liverpool’s £335m Royal Hospital delayed

The collapse of construction giant Carillion last month has delayed work on the new multi-million pound hospital in Liverpool city centre.

Bosses of the liquidated company confirmed the £335m development is unlikely to be finished in 2018.

Carillion chief exec Aidan Kehoe said opening the 646-bed Royal Liverpool Hospital this year would be “challenging”, the BBC reported.

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust is now trying to retain sub-contractors and former Carillion employees, Mr Kehoe said, as they have “the best understanding” of the work required to finish the scheme.

He said complex negotiations are taking time due to the financial ripple effect of Carillion’s collapse, adding: “We expect a significant delay and it will prove challenging to get the new Royal finished before the end of the year.”

According to the BBC, he commented: “We all want the best for our patients and the people of Liverpool and that is to move into our world-class new hospital.

“When it is built, the new Royal will be at the heart of one of Europe’s leading health and life sciences hubs and will provide the best possible environment for cutting-edge healthcare and research.”

The new Royal Liverpool Hospital was originally due to open in March 2017 but met with a number of delays.

Bdaily reported this morning (February 6) on a new wave of redundancies that saw a further 452 Carillion workers lose their jobs.

Seven former directors of Carillion have now gone before MPs as part of a joint inquiry by two select committees.

They blamed factors such as the snap general election, Brexit and non-payment of bills for the collapse, but were accused of being “asleep at the wheel” in the years leading up to the liquidation.

Speaking last month, Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “There is something fundamentally wrong when a company of this size, with a number of significant contracts awarded by national government, ends up in this position.

“We need to understand what went wrong and how to learn from it.”