Almost £80 million is needed to clear hospital maintenance backlog and repair crumbling NHS buildings across North Manchester – including Royal Oldham Hospital, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found. Meanwhile, the NHS is facing a £700 million cut to its budget for repairs across the country.
Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, councillor Howard Sykes said, “NHS staff are working flat out in under resourced, unfit buildings. Yet the government is cutting budgets instead of stumping up for the essential repairs that NHS facilities need. No wonder our NHS is struggling to catch up with the backlog of patients caused by the pandemic.”
The small print of last week’s Autumn Statement revealed the savage cut to the Department for Health’s capital spending budget next year, which is used for buildings, facilities, and infrastructure.
Nationally the cost of the repairs backlog has been revealed by the NHS estates review as an astonishing £10.2 billion. It comes alongside news that the NHS waiting list has hit 7 million people, with more than 24,000 stuck on wait lists in Oldham.
Oldham Liberal Democrats are calling for the Chancellor to halt his plans “to make patients and staff pay” for the Conservative government’s “economic mess”. They propose urgent investment in local hospital buildings to ensure they are safe and can function effectively.
Councillor Sykes said, “Our hospitals are falling apart at the seams. People here have had enough of record GP, dentist and ambulance waiting times. They’ve had enough of outdated and decaying hospital equipment.”
“The Conservatives are showing that they just don’t care about the NHS. The Chancellor must announce an investment plan and ensure that NHS facilities receive the funding they need.”
NOTES
Repair backlog data can be found here
The Government has announced a cut to the Capital budget for Health and Social Care in the Autumn Statement.
All figures given by the Government in its report are current prices, in other words they aren’t adjusted for inflation. The Liberal Democrats have adjusted these figures using the OBR’s GDP Deflator (which measures the changes in prices) figures to calculate the Capital budget in real terms.
These calculations show that the Capital budget for Health and Social Care will fall by £700m in 2023-24 in real terms, potentially derailing the Government’s pledge to build 40 new hospitals. Calculations here .