Safety fears as NHS repairs backlog soars

£900m bill to fix crumbling buildings

SCOTLAND is facing a £900million bill to repair its crumbling and lifethreatening NHS buildings.

As fast as the maintenance backlog is fixed, more work is being found, with the repair bill soaring by £19million last year.

A Scottish Government report shows almost 10 per cent of the work needed is high-risk. That means if it is not done, it is ‘likely or certain’ someone will be injured, die, the law will be broken or NHS services will be badly affected.

More than a third of the buildings backlog presents a significant risk to patients and NHS staff.

Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘The NHS is under tremendous pressure financially and this eye-watering sum only adds to that. But, aside from

‘Could be care and safety issues’

the cost, there could well be care and safety issues too. Patients cannot be treated in buildings that are falling to pieces.’

Despite 21st century hospitals such as Glasgow’s £1billion Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, more than a fifth of the NHS estate in Scotland is at least 50 years old.

While some health boards are selling off older hospitals and building new ones, more maintenance work is being found all the time.

The cost to the public purse is rocketing, in part, because of inflation in the construction sector, which will put the cost of work up £90million on previous years.

When this inflation is built in, the maintenance backlog has soared by £109million since 2014, when inflation was not calculated.

But patients reading yesterday’s Annual State of NHS Scotland Assets and Facilities Report for 2015 may be less concerned by the cost from their taxes than the risk that they will be harmed while they are in clinics or wards.

The 9 per cent of work which is high-risk is defined by the NHS as having ‘major’ or ‘catastrophic’ consequences. In the worst case scenario, someone could die. Examples of high-risk building faults include a very high window, part of which could fall into a public area, or a damaged roof which could land on an X-ray machine.

NHS Lothian has the highest percentage of its backlog which is high or significant-risk – almost three-quarters. The second highest proportion in mainland Scotland is in Tayside, with 62 per cent.

However, the nationwide proportion of significant and high-risk backlog maintenance fell in the year to 2015.

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said the SNP had allowed the NHS to ‘fall into disrepair’, adding: ‘Our NHS is Scotland’s most valued public service. Scots will be horrified to see these costs increase at a time when the SNP won’t give our health service the resources it needs.’

The £19million rise in the NHS repair bill has been driven by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Scotland was on course to cut its maintenance backlog by £40million before surveys found £50million of work needed in the health board area. Bosses there plan to sell off a host of older hospitals as it strives to make £69million in savings to fill a black hole in its 2016-17 budget.

The report states the health board’s position is expected to improve in future years when the surplus buildings are disposed of to make way for state-of-the-art Queen Elizabeth University Hospi- tal. In response to criticism of crumbling NHS buildings, George Curley, director of operations at NHS Lothian, said its maintenance bill had fallen in real terms from £96.8million in 2013 to £58.5million last year.

He added: ‘Our property portfolio is continually changing and evolving as buildings age, new facilities are created and others are earmarked for sale.’

An NHS Tayside spokesman said: ‘We have a property strategy that is driven by our clinical strategy, that is looking at our current property portfolio with a view to declaring surplus those properties that do not meet our new models of care.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said backlog maintenance has fallen by more than £110million since its first assets report was published five years ago.

She added: ‘Much of the backlog is in either buildings planned to be disposed of in the next few years or in non-clinical parts of the estate.’

Comment – Page 18

‘Horrified to see costs increase’