THE costs of fixing crumbling hospitals in Scotland’s NHS has soared by over £200m in the space of just five years leaving some of Scotland's busiest hospitals in a 'high-risk' state, it can be revealed.
Calls are being made for better funding of the service as the cost of fixing the NHS estate has risen by 25% - despite an SNP government plan to drastically cut
In 2016, a Scottish Government analysis said the backlog was at £887m. But new figures show that has now grown to £1.1bn.
Six years ago, the Scottish Government set a target of getting rid of the 'high risk' backlog completely by 2020, and planned to spend £1.1bn on major NHS projects over the following four years. It also sought to cut overall maintenance backlog issues to below £500m in the same timescale.
Official data purloined by the Scottish Conservatives shows that 72% of the £120.7m of maintenance work required at sites in NHS Tayside alone was deemed either a ‘significant risk’ or ‘high risk’.
In Scotland's biggest NHS board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde eight hospitals needed 'high risk' maintenance spending - Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow Dental Hospital, Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Lightburn Hospital, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Royal Alexandra Hospital and Vale of Leven Hospital.
Over £1m of repairs deemed "high risk" were needed at Inverclyde Royal Hospital out of an £102.29m maintenance backlog.
And around £700,000 of repairs deemed "high risk" were needed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital site.
Shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane says the “jaw-dropping” backlog figures was further evidence of the SNP Government’s “shocking failure” to fully resource health boards across the country.
Some parts of Scotland have seen the backlog treble in the last four years.
NHS Shetland has seen the biggest per capita surge in the backlog growing from £2.033m in 2017/18 to £6.367m in 2021/22.
NHS Borders has seen its outstanding maintenance bill soar by two-and-a-half times over those four years from £8.4m to £21.5m.
Scotland's biggest NHS board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has seen the backlog soar nearly 50% over the last four year from £127.6m to £337.1m.
Dr Gulhane said SNP health secretary Humza Yousaf must urgently and guarantee that the maintenance backlog will not spiral further out of control, at a time when the NHS is already under huge financial pressures.
He said: “These figures are absolutely jaw-dropping. It is scarcely believable that the backlog bill facing our NHS has now hit such an astronomical figure of over £1.5 billion.
“The increase in maintenance work that requires to be carried out across Scotland’s health boards is further evidence of the SNP’s shocking failure to fully fund our health boards.
“Far too many of our crucial health service sites have been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair and it is appalling that as a result many repairs are now deemed significant or high risk.
“Our NHS is already under huge financial strain and this ever-increasing repair bill can be directly linked to years of chronic underfunding from successive SNP health secretaries.
“These repairs needs to be carried out urgently or else we risk patients having treatments and operations cancelled, adding to the already record-high waiting times.
“These figures must be a catalyst for Humza Yousaf to guarantee our health boards will have all the resources they need, so this maintenance bill can be dramatically reduced from its current unsustainable levels.”
It comes as a separate analysis found that half of NHS Scotland buildings contain asbestos, prompting calls for action to remove the potentially deadly substance.
The “shock” figures revealed that 52% of buildings belonging to NHS Scotland contained the toxic substance which can cause cancer.
Out of Scotland’s 14 health boards, eight reported having asbestos in more than 50% of their buildings – with that figure rising to an “astonishing” 92% in NHS Lothian.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said 72 buildings contain asbestos, representing 60% of the premises it either owns or uses.
The health board said it has an asbestos management plan in place for each of the affected premises.
As of August, some 17 out of 65 buildings used by the Scottish Government contain the fibrous minerals linked to cancer and lung damage.
A review of the NHS by Audit Scotland earlier this year warned of an "ever-increasing backlog of patients waiting to be seen" and that rising spending on the health service was "unsustainable".
This was despite the Scottish Government allocating £2.9 billion for pandemic-related costs in 2020/21 and committing more funding in 2021/22 and beyond.
The spending watchdog said that the Scottish Government has ambitious plans to redesign NHS services but stressed they "will be challenging and take a long time to realise".
Its report said the Government "struggles to recruit enough people with the right skills" into the health service and increasing staffing in the NHS must be a priority.
Plans for a National Care Service could also hinder the recovery of the health service as Scotland emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the auditor general, Stephen Boyle.
Assessing the NHS's finances, Audit Scotland found that an additional £2.9bn of funding was allocated in 2020-21 across health and social care, including £1.7bn for health boards.
In 2020-21, the health budget was £18 billion - accounting for 35% of the total Scottish Budget.
Of this, the NHS funding allocation was £16.3 billion, an increase of 19% in cash terms on the £13.7bn the previous year.
It found that 14 out of 22 NHS boards required additional Scottish Government funding to achieve financial balance in 2020/21.
Six NHS boards faced a "particularly challenging" financial position and had, since autumn 2021, been submitting monthly plans to the Scottish Government on how they plan to achieve savings, with the aim of improving their positions by the start of the 2022/23 financial year.
These boards are NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Highland and NHS Orkney.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are fully supportive of the need to properly maintain and invest in our existing estate and are doubling annual funding for maintenance.
“We will invest over £1 billion in enhancing or refurbishing existing health facilities, and updating and modernising medical equipment that is essential for delivering high quality medical services.”
The watchdog said that the NHS was "not financially sustainable" before the Covid-19 pandemic, with boards relying on additional financial support from government or non-recurring savings just to break even.
Its analysis found that the scale of the financial challenge has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel