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Privateer's failure hits as Liverpool's hospital beds fill up
Union blames lack of capacity for region's Tier-3 status
An advertising van outside the Royal Liverpool University Hospital before Thursday's nationwide Clap for Carers NHS initiative to applaud NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic
THAT hospitals in Liverpool are near capacity while a failed privateer’s facility stands idle is a “catastrophic failure,” trade unionists said today.
Unfinished construction work at the new Liverpool Royal Hospital, due to open in 2017 but delayed until 2022 after privateer Carillion collapsed, means that it is unable to accept Covid-19 patients.
Meanwhile hospital staff have reported to public-service union Unison that one in five in-patients at the city’s two main hospitals — the old Royal and the Aintree — has coronavirus.
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![Unison members outside Oldham hospital, greater Manchester, August 24, 2026 [Pic: Neil Terry]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2026-08/IMG_9635058.JPG.webp?itok=efrKYNqZ)
