Nyt OUH delay deepens as construction workforce falls

Construction of Nyt OUH, Denmark’s largest newly built super-hospital, will be delayed again and will not receive its first patients in 2027, DR reports. The full extent of the delay is not yet known.

One reason is a sharp decline in the number of workers at the construction site. The project organisation says about 700 construction workers are currently working there, well below the level needed to maintain progress.

“At the beginning of the year, there were up to 1,500 workers, and that number has fallen to around 700 over the summer. That is worryingly low,” said Kenneth Holm, director of the Nyt OUH project organisation, in comments to DR.

Bo Libergren, chairman of the Region of Southern Denmark’s regional council and the political head of the project’s client, said the figure was far too low.

“Seven hundred is honestly far too few, and when I heard that, I was frankly a little irritated. Earlier this year there were considerably more workers, and then I believed we could finish the project. But 700 is too few,” he told DR.

The Italian general contractor OHPT, or Odense Hospital Project Team, is responsible for hiring enough workers to keep construction on schedule and deliver the buildings on time. OHPT had no further comment when contacted by DR.

Torben Knudsen, chairman of the 3F construction workers’ union on Funen, said the renewed delay did not come as a surprise. He also questioned claims that there was a shortage of labour, saying some union members had been sent home after company bankruptcies even though they wanted to work for other contractors.

“They are carpenters and general labourers who want to work at the site but have not been offered other work,” Knudsen said.

The project has repeatedly been affected by disputes involving subcontractors. In May and June, foreign workers from the bankrupt company Techno Build demonstrated outside the construction site after not receiving their wages. The protest lasted several days before a special solution was arranged.

Nyt OUH is being built by OHPT, which is backed by the Italian groups CMB and Itinera. The hospital will have around 10,000 rooms, 912 beds, 496 outpatient and examination rooms, and 52 operating theatres. The project was originally due to be completed in 2022 but has been delayed several times.