Health board pays out £3.5 million to run Edinburgh's empty Sick Kids hospital

Call for Scottish Government to pick up bill

The new Sick Kids at Little France was due to open in July 2019 Picture: Scott Louden

HEALTH bosses in Lothian forked out more than £3.5 million in running costs for the delayed new Sick Kids hospital last year even though the building was standing empty.

And today there were calls for Health Secretary Jeane Freeman to guarantee the Scottish Government will pick up the bill.

The costs emerged as around 400 NHS staff in scrubs and masks gathered outside the Royal Infirmary calling for pay rises at a rally organised by Unison Scotland.

They carried placards and sported T-shirts with the slogan “Clapping Doesn’t Pay Our Bills”.

The opening of the new Sick Kids hospital, next door to the infirmary, was delayed at the last minute in July 2019 due to problems with the ventilation.

But in response to a freedom of information request from Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs, NHS Lothian revealed the new building ran up operational costs £528,986 in 2018/19; £3,559,664 in 2019/20; and £877,213 in the first three months of 2020/21.

At the same time NHS Lothian also had operational costs at the existing Sick Kids at Sciennes of around £4.2m a year in 2018/19 and 2019/20 and over £1m in the first three months of this year.

Mr Briggs said: “Given the financial underfunding of NHS Lothian, one of the commitments Jeane Freeman gave was that NHS Lothian wouldn’t lose out because of the delay to the hospital. Does this mean they will give the health board the money to pay for these costs or will it have to come out of NHS Lothian’s budget?

“It does seem a huge cost for a building which hasn’t had any patients. We need a commitment that the health board is not going to be left with these additional costs.

“NHS Lothian is one of the lowest funded health boards, its budget is already over-stretched and it is looking to make cuts. Given the issues we’ve had, the government should really think again about the settlement it gives to Lothian. This must not be allowed to impact on services.”

The operational costs come on top of the £1.4m a month the health board is already paying to the consortium who built the new hospital.

Work is being carried out at the hospital to ensure the ventilation system meets national standards and a public inquiry has started its investigation into what went wrong with the construction project.

The Department of Clinical Neurosciences, previously Hospital has now moved to the new building at Little France and outpatient services from the Sick Kids were transferred last month. No date has been set for the move of inpatient services or the accident and emergency department.

A Scottish Government spokesman said the partial move was approved after assurances it was safe to go ahead.

He added: “Costs arising from the significant work undertaken including ensuring the compliance of the ventilation and other critical systems were managed centrally by the Scottish Government, with no adverse impact for NHS Lothian services, and we continue to engage with the Board to ensure the smooth transition to the hospital.”

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