THE future of a new £30-million wing at Archway’s Whittington Hospital is still in the balance – after health bosses revealed a new company could take over the project from troubled construction firm Jarvis.
Jarvis, suffering with cash-flow problems, is negotiating with City financiers to take on the project.
But a new company could mean further delays for the building, which was already nine months behind schedule when work stopped in December.
And hospital bosses have admitted there is still no start date in sight – increasing fears that the scheme to replace the crumbling Victorian wards won’t be completed until the end of the year.
The hospital’s NHS Trust chairman Narendra Makanji told the New Journal: “It depends on the settling of 13 other Jarvis projects – and there are three parties involved. There is Jarvis, financiers Star Capital who want to take over from Jarvis and banks, which are in the main HSBC.”
He said if a new firm took over the project they were likely to bring in new builders, adding to the delays.
He added: “But I am cautiously optimistic the wing will be completed towards end of this year. You have to have deadlines with builders or things just go on and on. But even after a takeover, there will be at least a month before physical work is started.”
Jarvis won the contract to design, build and maintain the new wing under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in October 2002 to replace wards built in the 1800’s – and Jarvis was chosen ahead of two other companies under the PFI agreement.
The deal with Jarvis, which would see the company maintain the wing, was due to run for 30 years.