IHS Lothian Ltd, the consortium building the £150m Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, has informed NHS Lothian that they are reviewing the construction timetable for the project which was scheduled to open autumn 2017.

The consortium is yet to provide a revised programme however NHS Lothian said early indications suggest that the building will now open to patients in spring 2018.

The announcement comes after Dunne Group and JB Brickwork, two of the companies working on construction of the hospital, entered administration and provisional liquidation respectively resulting in a temporary pause to their work streams. Progress has also been hindered by unfavourable winter weather and unavoidable technical construction problems.

The Dunne Group, which was responsible for construction of the concrete frame, ground works and associated support services such as tower cranes, entered into administration last month. More recently JB Brickwork, which provided materials and labour to construct brickwork services, entered provisional liquidation.

IHS Lothian Ltd consists of Macquarie Capital as sole sponsor and exclusive financial advisor, Brookfield Multiplex Construction Europe (Design and Build Contractor) and Bouygues E&S (Facilities Management provider).

NHS Lothian said while the contractors have been able to lessen the impacts of some of these issues, with increased staffing and working hours along with altered construction methods, they are now looking at a revised programme schedule.

Jim Crombie, acting chief executive, NHS Lothian, said: “We will continue to work closely with IHS Lothian Ltd to ensure that our state of the art new hospital is delivered as soon as possible.

“Projects of this scale and, of this nature, are very rarely straightforward and bring with them many complex and sometimes unavoidable challenges. It is important to note that these alterations to the construction timetable will not result in any additional costs to NHS Lothian.

“Whilst this change is frustrating for our patients and staff, we must not forget that construction of this impressive new building is continuing and that much work has already been achieved. In addition, the project has already created a host of new entrant jobs for local people, including apprentices and graduate opportunities.”

Construction work on the hospital started in early 2015. The project is the first acute hospital facility to be procured under the Scottish Government’s Non Profit Distributing (NPD) model.

Building work continues on site and a revised construction programme from IHS Lothian Ltd is expected in October.