RAAC
Managing RAAC at Airedale General Hospital
Richard Burgin, assistant director of securing the future at AGH Solutions – a wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust – discusses the work being undertaken for its RAAC management programme at Airedale General Hospital and the challenge of carrying out extensive inspection, monitoring, maintenance, and strengthening works while maintaining a fully operational healthcare environment.
Across the NHS estate, few infrastructure challenges rival the scale and complexity of the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) programme at Airedale General Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire. While many healthcare organisations have identified RAAC within parts of their estates, Airedale faces one of the most significant and technically challenging situations in the country. The hospital contains RAAC throughout a substantial
proportion of its estate, with 80 per cent of floors, walls, and roofs affected. The site includes approximately 70,000 RAAC planks and one of the largest flat roof structures in the NHS, creating a unique risk profile that requires continuous monitoring, assessment, and intervention. At the centre of this response is AGH Solutions, the
wholly owned subsidiary of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust responsible for estates, facilities and procurement services. Since discovering the issue in 2019, the organisation has evolved into a strategic delivery partner, overseeing nationally recognised RAAC remediation work while simultaneously supporting the hospital’s inclusion within the New Hospital Programme. The challenge facing AGH Solutions extends far
Aerial shot of Airedale General Hospital.
beyond repairing ageing infrastructure. The organisation must ensure that a busy acute hospital remains safe, operational, and fully functional while extensive inspections, structural interventions, and refurbishment programmes are delivered across the estate.
An estate unlike any other The complexity of the Airedale estate distinguishes it from many other NHS organisations dealing with RAAC. Unlike sites where concerns are largely confined to
roofing systems, Airedale contains RAAC throughout multiple building elements. This includes floors, walls, and roofs across clinical and non-clinical environments. The scale of the issue requires a long-term programme of inspection, risk assessment, and remediation rather than isolated interventions.
A dedicated team conducts inspections across
approximately 70,000 individual RAAC planks, located throughout 52 departments. Each asset requires ongoing condition monitoring to identify deterioration, assess risk, and ensure appropriate remedial action is taken before issues become critical. The overarching objective is to reduce risk exposure to as low as reasonably practicable while maintaining safe operation of the hospital and supporting uninterrupted patient care.
Developing a risk-based asset management strategy Managing an estate of this scale requires more than periodic surveys and reactive maintenance. AGH Solutions has developed a risk-led management methodology that places asset intelligence at the centre of decision- making. This is unique within the NHS RAAC programme, as the survey, monitoring, and categorisation of the RAAC risks are completed in house, using dynamic inspection frequency and risk prioritisation tools by a team of operatives in the direct employ of the organisation. This gives both AGH Solutions and the Trust an advantage when it comes to understanding the RAAC risks, how the risks effect different clinical pathway, while enabling a timely and dynamic response to changes in both RAAC plank state or national guidance. It also reduces costs to the NHS; consulting structural engineers are not required for the inspections, while the in-house team achieve a lower level of aborted inspections than external agencies, by flexing to meet clinical operational demands and tailoring inspections around clinical delivery in affected areas. The programme combines detailed inspections, structural assessments, remediation planning, and ongoing monitoring, all recorded in real time on a digital twin, designed alongside BIS consult and utilising ERSI’s ArcGIS platform
52 Health Estate Journal October 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188
