Millions needed to help stop catastrophic hospital failures

MORE than £10m is needed for repairs to prevent “catastrophic failures” at hospitals in Leicestershire - and maintenance issues are getting worse.

New figures released today show trusts covering the area needed to spend £10.4m to tackle their “high risk” maintenance backlog in 2017/18.

These are defined as repairs and replacements that must be addressed

as an urgent priority in order to prevent catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury or prosecution.

This was up from £6.9m in 2016/17.

A further £10.1m was identified by trusts to clear their “significant risk” maintenance backlog.

While these are less serious problems than those categorised as “high risk”, they still need to be done as a priority to avoid risk to healthcare delivery or safety.

The figure that needed to be spent in 2017/18 was up from £6.1m identified in 2016/17.

Leicester Royal Infirmary has identified the most expensive “high risk” backlog locally, needing to spend £6m in 2017/18. This was up from £3.9m in 2016/17.

The hospital also needs to spend £5.9m on its “significant risk” backlog, up from £2.9m a year before.

Overall, the hospital reported that 6% of the floor space is not functionally suitable. Across the site, 47% of floor space occupied by patients is not functionally suitable.

Space is deemed “not functionally suitable” if it is below an acceptable standard in its present condition.

The degree to which space is unsuitable will vary. Some will be largely effective for patient care but fail to meet best-prac- tice standards, while others may be in urgent need of major remedial work.

Best-practice standards cover things such as space, layout and design as well as the availability of toilets and storage space, and the suitability of office space.

The backlog maintenance costs relate to getting the site back up to an acceptable standard for physical condition, fire safety and statutory safety legislation relevant to the built environment.

The data also shows that 30% of patient occupied space at Leicester General Hospital is not functionally suitable.

To get the site up to standard, £2.3m needs to be spent on the high risk backlog, and £3m on the significant risk maintenance backlog - up from £1.9m and £2m respectively in 2016/17.

The data comes from returns by NHS trusts, who are asked each year about the current state of their estates.

Across England, the cost of clearing the maintenance backlog has risen to £5.96bn in 2017/18.

That was up from £5.55bn in 2016/17 and £4.97bn in 2016/17.

The cost of clearing the high risk backlog is now £1.04bn, up from £0.95bn in 2016/17, while the cost of the significant backlog rose from £1.79bn to £2.03bn over the same period.