Under-pressure NHS hospitals need crucial repairs worth extra £4.97billion as funds ‘raided to fund patient care’

CRUMBLING NHS hospitals face a maintenance backlog of £4.97billion, figures show.

Health bosses warn funds intended for repairs have been repeatedly raided to pay bills and fund patient care.

Department of Health officials have now admitted this is likely to continue for several years.

And this could prevent or delay the vital improvements hospitals need.

North West London has the largest backlog, which would cost nearly £1billion to address.

Derbyshire is at the opposite end of the scale, with outstanding work valued at £11million, figures from NHS Digital reveal.

Some of the backlog – for 2015/16 – will relate to buildings that are unfit and unsuitable for further investment.

Paul Fenton, chair of the Health Estates and Facilities Management Association, said hospitals will become less important as patients are increasingly treated off-site.

He told the Health Service Journal: “There are real concerns around capital funding from our members.

“But we also have to balance that by recognising healthcare delivery is changing, and reducing the need for patients to come to an acute site.”

And he warned the ongoing crisis will “hinder the ability to redesign the estate to enable the shift of care out of hospital due to the need to continue to deliver in the here and now”.

The backlog in North West London relates largely to Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London Northwest Healthcare Trust and Hillingdon Hospitals Foundation Trust.

A major reconfiguration of services has long been planned for the area.

Buildings on two of its sites, at St George’s and St Helier hospitals, are said to be “increasingly unfit for purpose”.