Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) affecting Royal Surrey County Hospital should be made safe by this autumn, the trust has confirmed. 

Small amounts of the dangerous  RAAC which can crumble and collapse without warning was found in plant rooms at Guildford hospital site, the trust said.

These areas, identified in the roof tops, are not accessible by patients, visitors or staff and measures have been put in place to protect engineers maintaining equipment.

The hospital was one of a number of medical centres the Department of Health said was now either safe or would be by the end of the financial year.

However the trust itself has since said it expects all work to be completed this year. 

A spokesperson for Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “A small amount of  RAAC was found in some rooftop plant rooms on the Royal Surrey County Hospital site. 

“These areas are not accessible to patients, visitors, or staff and robust mitigating measures were put in. 

“Work to remove and replace the RAAC is currently underway and is expected to be completed later this autumn.”

RAAC is a lightweight building material with a limited lifespan that was widely used in public buildings between the 1960s and 1980s.

Hospitals where RAAC has been identified have since had robust mitigations put in place to make them stable and safe until its removal, the DOH said in a statement.

Simon Corben, director of estates at NHS England, said: “Keeping patients and staff safe is always our top priority, and we have been working closely with trusts to manage RAAC safely and ensure the continuation of services while this essential work is taking place.

“The completion of these latest projects is a positive step, giving staff confidence that they can continue delivering care in safe environments – and we will keep working with trusts to complete the programme across the NHS estate at pace.”

Missing from the list of 19 NHS hospitals announced by the DOH that would benefit from the £440m in central funding this year was the RAAC riddled Frimley Park Hospital where two-thirds of the entire site was constructed out of the material. 

The Government had previously announced a complete rebuild of Frimley Park was scheduled to begin in 2030 at a cost of between £1.5bn and £2bn.