Southport Hospital trust risks “catastrophic failure” as vital repairs pile up under Tories
A soaring backlog of “high” or “significant” risk maintenance repair is threatening Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust’s capability.
New figures reveal that the trust’s repair bill backlog for maintenance in the categories has nearly doubled in just three years.
The NHS defines ‘high risk’ maintenance as work that is so pressing that it “must be addressed with urgent priority in order to prevent catastrophic failure”.
The local NHS trust’s repair bill for unaddressed high or significant risk work now stands at £2,154,600, a near 100% increase during the period from the previous £1,081,100.
The trust is currently struggling under a £29 million deficit due to lack of government funding and is currently reviewing its future options.
Liz Savage, Labour’s candidate for Southport, says the new figures show how little the government or the town’s Conservative MP really care about the NHS or local residents:
” The government’s record on this is shocking and they are playing with the safety of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust patients and staff – so why isn’t Damien Moore calling for Tory cuts to be cancelled?
“ The Tories are betraying the NHS and Southport. We’re all being let down by a government that won’t pay for the vital basic repairs needed ”
” Our doctors and nurses in Southport and Ormskirk work extremely hard to look after us and the people we love, while the government is then putting us and the people who care for us into potential danger. It’s appalling.
“ Worryingly, just like with police funding, Damien Moore still hasn’t called on Theresa May to cancel the cuts she’s got planned for the next four years. ”
“If you’re the MP for this area but you don’t support its people and its public services, then you’ve fundamentally failed. ”
The figures produced by the House of Commons Library show that the backlog has increased in every region in England but in the North West, it has rocketed by 42% to £270 million. Nationally, the backlog for high or significant risk repairs under this government now stands at over a staggering £3 billion.
Labour has previously revealed a dossier of serious incidents which occurred as a result of the maintenance backlog. These included patients being forced to sleep in coats because of freezing ward temperatures; leaks from a ceiling onto an operating table forcing patients to be re-routed to other theatres and blocked drains causing sewage to seep into a clinical area.
Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, has this week called on Ministers to urgently provide funding in the forthcoming budget to eradicate the mounting backlog which is putting patients and staff at risk.
During the General Election, Labour pledged an additional £10 billion of capital funding to ensure NHS buildings and IT systems were fit for purpose.
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