Shropshire hospitals’ repairs bill runs into the millions

New figures show there is a backlog of repairs totalling £72.4 million across the four main NHS trusts serving the county, including £54.5 million at the troubled Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust.

They also show that £2.9 million worth of repairs needed at the trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals, were classed as high risk.

This means they could cause ‘catastrophic disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury and prosecution’ if not addressed immediately. Examples of this could include upgrading software on medical equipment, maintaining generators and boilers, and ensuring that buildings were structurally sound.

The data, released by NHS Digital, relates to the 12 months to March.

It also showed that more than £10 million worth of repairs were needed at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital at Oswestry, with £92,000 worth of work classified as high risk.

More than £1 million worth of repairs and replacements were found to be needed at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, while £5.6 million worth of work was deemed necessary at South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Nick Huband, associate director of estates and facilities at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, said that like all other NHS organisations, the hospital had been operating in an environment of constrained capital for several years.

“This has led to increases in the backlog maintenance of our hospital,” he said.

Challenges

“Despite these national challenges, the trust actively manages the condition of its buildings and equipment, minimising risk through regular condition appraisals and targeted investment where required. As a trust, we prioritise patient safety and regularly receive positive feedback from patients, visitors and staff alike.

“This year, we are investing in addressing the high priority issues to ensure our services remain safe and operational to patients, staff and the public alike.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Investment to tackle this maintenance work has increased by 25 per cent from £324 million in 2016-17 to £404 million in 2017-18 to help trusts maintain their estates and invest in new facilities.

“We want patients to continue to receive world-class care in world-class facilities, which is why our long-term plan for the NHS will boost funding by £20.5 billion a year extra by 2023-24.

“We are also investing £3.9 billion into the NHS to help transform and modernise buildings, and improve patient care in hospitals and communities.”

How the trusts compare

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

The trust, which operates the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, has a backlog of £54.5 million, of which £2.9 million is said to be ‘high-risk’.

According to the data, which covers the 12 months to March, problems with the trust’s infrastructure led to 50 incidents where patients were either harmed or put at risk of harm.

The news comes just weeks after the trust was issued with an urgent enforcement notice by the Care Quality Commission.

Clinical services were delayed, cancelled or otherwise affected because of problems with buildings or equipment on 131 occasions over the time period.

Last year the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust spent £3.8 million trying to reduce the backlog, but judging from the latest figures many millions more will be needed.

Since 2013/14, the cost of the backlog has risen by 182 per cent, with the high-risk repair bill increasing by £2.85 million, having stood at about £7,000 in 2013-14.

Shropshire Community Health Trust

Shropshire Community Health trust runs the county’s four community hospitals, in Bishop’s Castle, Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Whitchurch, and also runs the district nursing and health-visitor services across the county.

According to the report, the trust had backlog of £1.6 million worth of work which needed to be carried out. Approximately £75,000 of these jobs were classified as ‘high risk’ repairs, and the figures said there was one incident over the 12-month period to the end of March where a patient had been harmed or put at risk.Clinical services were disrupted on a single occasion over the same period.

A further £705,000 worth of work was classed as ‘significant risk’.

Last year, the Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust spent £154,000 trying to reduce its repair backlog. However, this value of repairs outstanding has risen by six per cent since 2013-14. Julie Thornby, director of corporate affairs at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, said: “We monitor the condition of our equipment and buildings closely, and work with partners including NHS Property Services to make year-on-year improvements, with safety as the top priority. “Recent investments such as the new X-Ray Suite in Ludlow are helping us to offer a better patient experience, and in total we will be investing just over £2 million this year in buildings and equipment.”

Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic

Nearly £11 million needs to be spent at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital to maintain the site.

The trust which runs the Gobowen-based hospital is sitting on a £10.7 million backlog of repairs or replacements which should have been carried out on its buildings and equipment.

Of this, £92,000 worth of outstanding jobs were classed as high-risk repairs ‘liable to cause serious injury and prosecution’ if not addressed immediately.

A further £6.5 million of work needed was said to present a ‘significant risk’ to safety or disrupting care if not prioritised quickly.

The data identified 14 incidents where patients were either harmed or put at risk of harm during the 12 months up until March this year.

Clinical services were delayed, cancelled or otherwise affected because of problems with buildings or facilities on four occasions.

Last year the trust spent £336,000 on trying to reduce the backlog.

However, the number of outstanding repairs continued to grow, rising by 60 per cent compared to the previous year.

South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare

South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was found to have a £5.6 million backlog of work over the year to March.

Approximately £3.5 million of these jobs were classified as ‘significant risk’ repairs, although none were in the ‘high risk’ category.

The trust, which has since merged with neighbouring Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership Trust, was responsible for providing physical and mental health, learning disability and adult social care services, including the £46 million Redwoods Centre mental health village at Bicton Heath in Shrewsbury. It trust merged with the Staffordshire and Stoke trust in June this year to form the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The figures show three incidents where patients were either harmed or put at risk over the 12-month period. Clinical services were delayed, cancelled otherwise affected because of problems on 13 occasions.

Last year the trust spent £154,000 trying to reduce the backlog, but despite this the amount of work outstanding has continued to grow, rising by six per cent since 2013/14.

Amanda Godfrey of the Midlands Partnership trust said it took the safety of all patients, staff and visitors very seriously and worked hard to ensure all buildings and grounds were maintained to the highest standard.

“We would challenge any implication that any patients were seriously harmed or clinical services significantly adversely affected by any maintenance issues,” she said.

“We have an ongoing programme of repairs and maintenance and any priority issues are dealt with immediately.

“We are particularly proud of our inpatient facilities at The Redwoods in Shrewsbury and have invested in new community facilities at Severn Fields in Shrewsbury and Hall Court in Telford.”