Crumbling hospital buildings across Lincolnshire require 87m worth of work to repair the damage after years of neglect.
NHS Digital, which provides data to the NHS to help improve healthcare, has estimated that more than £5.8m is needed to tackle immediate, high-risk problems and avert major disruption to hospital services across Lincolnshire.
An additional £32.1m will also be needed to tackle serious building problems, this is where repairs or replacement require priority expenditure in the short term so as not to cause undue concern to statutory enforcement bodies or risk to healthcare delivery or safety, across the region’s three NHS trusts.
Pilgrim Hospital in Boston needs £36.6m of repairs, the most of any hospital in the county, according to the NHS Digital data. Lincoln County Hospital requires just over £22.6m of work, while repairs to the tune of more than £15.4m are needed at Grantham Hospital.
Last month the government pledged to give the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust £9.6m for five building projects.
But Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust and Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust missed out on the desperately needed extra funding, despite facing repair bills of more than £12.7m.
UNISON East Midlands regional organiser Elliot Dean said:
“These huge repair bills will get bigger unless the government urgently provides Lincolnshire trusts with the money needed to make hospital buildings safe.
“The £9.6m the government pledged to the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust last month is welcome but it’s a mere drop in the ocean compared to the total repair bill.
“Some staff on the frontline are working in NHS properties that are no longer fit for purpose. This is unreasonable and no-one should expect health workers caring for sick patients and saving lives to work in such poorly maintained buildings.”
Notes:
– The full data set from NHS Digital can found [here]
– Funding allocated to NHS trusts to upgrade and refurbish hospitals [here]
