To North Bristol Trust, where the move into the new £430m private finance initiative hospital has for the most part gone smoothly.

However, the state of the art new building has fallen victim to one act of nature which End Game imagines did not appear on any risk register prior to the move – mating seagulls.

The Bristol Post reports that male birds have managed to smash glass panels on the roof by dropping stones on it, apparently in a bid to attract members of the opposite sex.

A spokeswoman for PFI contractor Carillion said it was “only a problem during the seagulls’ breeding season” and the firm had “put in place measures to deter” the birds.

The paper reports this includes fitting “bird of prey shaped kites to fly above the top of the atrium” while a “real hawk is being used regularly in an attempt to deter the gulls”.

Perhaps North Bristol could share the use of the hawk with Dorset County Hospital Foundation Trust, which was last month presented with a petition complaining about the nuisance caused by seagulls.

The local residents, supported by local MP and cabinet office minister Oliver Letwin, approached the trust due to the large number of birds who roost on the hospital roof.

A board paper report the board sympathised with residents and lamented the fact that culling the birds was illegal. A misleadingly named “egg replacement” programme is however in place which sees 100 eggs removed from the trust site every year.

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