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.

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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.’

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