NHS hospitals need repairs costing £1billion to prevent risk to patients health, official figures show

  • NHS Trusts in England are sitting on a £6 billion backlog of equipment repairs
  • Almost 18,000 patient harm incidents took place because of poor infrastructure 
  • More than £1 billion of repairs need to be carried out urgently and may cost lives 

More than £1billion worth of urgent repairs need to be carried out across the NHS to prevent ‘catastrophic’ failures and risk to safety, figures show.

NHS trusts in England are sitting on a record-high backlog of almost £6billion of repairs or replacements on their buildings and equipment.

A staggering £billion of these are classed as ‘high-risk’ repairs.

More than £1billion worth of urgent repairs need to be carried out across the NHS to prevent ‘catastrophic’ failures and risk to safety, figures show [File photo]

This means they could cause ‘catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury and prosecution’ if not done immediately, says NHS Digital.


  • New tainted blood scandal: Patients infected with HIV were…


    ‘Britain’s worst mum’ Karen Matthews calls nurses ‘Hitlers’…

Share this article

There were 17,900 incidents where patients were harmed or put at risk of harm as a result of infrastructure problems – an increase of 800 in a year, the data from April 2017-March 2018 shows.

Clinical services were delayed, cancelled or affected due to problems on 3,835 occasions – a rise of 1,500. Trusts spent a combined £404.5million on repairs last year.

NHS trusts in England are sitting on a record-high backlog of almost £6billion of repairs or replacements on their buildings and equipment – £billion of which are classed as ‘high-risk’ repairs [File photo]

Chaand Nagpaul, from the British Medical Association, said there was an ‘urgent’ need for capital funding to address the NHS’s ‘impoverished infrastructure’.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘Our long-term plan for the NHS will boost funding by £20.5billion a year extra by 2023/24. 

‘We are also investing £3.9billion into the NHS to help transform and modernise buildings and improve patient care in hospitals and communities.’

Source: Read Full Article