Hospitals across the country are yet to send cladding samples for fire safety testing more than two weeks after the Grenfell Tower blaze.
The NHS has identified 36 sites that have cladding and are trying to establish whether dangerous aluminium composite material has been used.
In London, St Helier Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare Trust have all used cladding on their buildings.
None believe they have the type used at Grenfell but there has been a mixed response as to whether any will be sent for further tests.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “Jeremy Hunt’s instructions to NHS hospitals have been unclear and unhelpful. Two weeks on we still don’t have a full picture of how many hospitals are affected or whether patients are potentially at risk.
“The most important thing is to make sure as soon as possible that all NHS facilities are safe for patients and staff. The Government should be making sure that any cladding with a potential fire risk is tested as soon as possible.”
St Helier Hospital and King’s College are sending cladding for independent analysis and have increased their monitoring of fire safety.
Barts Health NHS Trust will be inspected by a team from NHS Improvement which will then decide if further action needs to be taken.
Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures
NHS Improvement said they would know the result of the 36 tests being carried out across the country by early next week.
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust are still to test their buildings and have arranged for fire safety checks while Imperial Trust say they have reviewed the cladding on all of their buildings and there are no “urgent fire safety risks.”
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Today a housing expert has told the Government to stop testing cladding altogether and get on with stripping buildings of dangerous materials as soon as possible.
More than 120 samples of aluminium composite material cladding — the type used at Grenfell Tower — have failed independent tests and are flammable.
David Orr, chief executive at the National Housing Federation, which represents the UK’s 900 housing associations, said: “These tests were the right thing to do, but the results are now conclusive: ACM cladding simply does not pass these tests and is deemed unsafe. Across the country, valuable resources, from specialist equipment to expert time, are being poured into a testing process of which the results are already known.”
He said resources must now be poured into removing the cladding from tower blocks, hotels, private sector blocks, schools and hospitals.
