Photos have revealed the inside of a state-of-the-art hospital in Liverpool which is being taken apart to make way for £100million of repairs.
The Royal Liverpool Hospital was almost 90 per cent complete before the construction company Carillion went under last year.
Photos show ceiling tiles taken down, exposed cabling and pipes and floor ripped up as builders prepare to fix 'complex' structural defects.
Hundreds of tonnes of steel and concrete will be used to finally get the £429m building ready for patients in repairs which could take another three years, according to some estimates.
The Royal Liverpool Hospital's almost-completed new building has been empty for years and builders are starting to take it apart again before it ever saw a single patient because 'complex' repairs need to be done on the structure
Although the hospital trust has not confirmed when the work is expected to be completed or how much it will cost, it adds another day to an already beleaguered project.
The nearby hospital buildings currently housing all the NHS staff and patients are crumbling and suffer regular flooding.
But operations will have to stay there for the foreseeable future after surveyors found serious problems at the new site.
These include cracked concrete posts and cladding which does not meet fire regulations on the outside.
Many vital systems such as water pipes and power cables need to be pulled out and moved around in the building so the remedial work – set to be done by contractor Laing O'Rourke – can take place.
But all the while the buildings must keep a power and water supply.
And taps must run regularly on the site to stop water sitting stagnant in the pipes and risking the spread of Legionnaires' disease.
Legionnaires' is an uncommon lung infection similar to pneumonia which is spread by people inhaling water droplets which have become a home to the bacteria.
