BBC reports asbestos in nine out of 10 hospitals

The BBC has found that nine out of 10 NHS trusts responding to an inquiry report that they have hospitals containing asbestos.

Having sent Freedom of Information requests to all 243 NHS trusts in Britain, receiving 211 responses, the findings indicate that 198 trusts run hospitals containing the material, once widely used in construction between the 1950s and 1970s.

Since then it has become clear that the presence of asbestos can be dangerous when inhaled and may give rise to asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma, which causes more than 5,000 deaths in the UK each year.

The BBC also discovered that 352 claims were made against trusts between January 2013 and December 2017 by people who had developed asbestos-related diseases in NHS buildings, resulting in payouts totalling £6.8 million. However, three legal firms have told the BBC that they had won compensation claims totalling more than £16.4 million in the same period.

In light of the findings, Jo Stevens, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Occupational Health and Safety, has urged the government to conduct an audit to ‘ensure every trust knows the extent of asbestos on their premises and has a plan for dealing with it’.

Mesothelioma UK is set to launch a research project into the impact on hospital workers.