Repairs at 4-year-old hospital

A flagship hospital built using private funds is being repaired four years after it opened, it emerged today.

Workers have been called in to the £422 million University College London Hospital to fix flooring, repaint walls and replace handrails and lights.

The hospital in Euston Road, which features a grand atrium and glass walkways, was funded by a private finance initiative. It was built and is maintained by consortium Health Management UCLH, made up of companies AMEC, Balfour Beatty and Interserve.

It opened in 2005 and as part of the deal the hospital must pay Health Management UCLH £64 million a year for 40 years. Critics have complained the NHS will end up paying £2.5 billion — five times what it cost to build.

Candy Udwin of Keep Our NHS Public said: "When a private company builds a hospital you expect it to be of the highest standards. I would expect flooring to last longer than four years. It is not like it is an old hospital." The work will take place in the atrium and stairwells.

A UCLH spokeswoman said some of the work came under the contract for the upkeep of the building, but the hospital must pay for replacing handrails.

The hospital will pay £88,000 extra towards the cost. She added that the lighting was being changed to become more energy efficient, which was at no extra cost to the NHS.