Gloucestershire-based training specialists C&G Safety & Environmental, part of C&G Services, has been called in to ensure safe construction procedures are being used at a new £690m 'superhospital' in Birmingham.

The firm has been brought in by project sub-contractor B R Hodgson to conduct monthly audits to monitor the safe installation of a total of 123,000 sheets of plasterboard, covering 445,000 square metres - nearly half a square kilometre - over the next couple of years. That's more than would be used to build 3000 typical houses.

The Birmingham New Hospitals Project will create a 1200-bed hospital for south Birmingham, along with new psychiatric and mental health units. It is expected to enable the NHS to treat 21% more patients in the area.

"There's a massive quantity of plasterboard going in, and it raises a number of safety issues" said Construction Safety Consultant Paul Brooks of C&G Safety & Environmental. "We're carrying out a full site safety audit to ensure safe access and exit and check for manual handling risks. The sheets measure 8ft x 4ft and are awkward to carry, so we need to make sure operatives use correct lifting procedures.

"An additional issue in clinical areas is that some of the plasterboard is lead-lined to act as a barrier to X-rays."