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Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust needs £12.2m of urgent repairs




Addenbrookes Hospital Picture: Keith Heppell
Addenbrookes Hospital Picture: Keith Heppell

Urgent extra funding has been pumped into a hospital trust to help carry out more than £12million of repairs in order to prevent “catastrophic” failures and risks to safety.

Data released by NHS Digital has revealed the extent of the maintenance backlog across NHS property and facilities in England, with the British Medical Association warning it is having an impact on patient care.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust currently has a backlog of £101.5m worth of repairs or replacements which should have been carried out on its buildings and equipment.

Around £12.2m worth of the outstanding jobs are classed as ‘high risk’ repairs.

This means they could cause “catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury and prosecution” if not addressed immediately.

Although the full amount required to clear the backlog has not been forthcoming from government, the trust has been allocated some additional funding to deal with the urgent risks.

Carin Charlton, director of capital, estates and facilities management, said: “Cambridge University Hospitals has the challenge of maintaining a large, ageing estate.

“As a result all of our estate is rigorously risk assessed on a regular basis and on-going programmes of repair and refurbishment are carried out according to priority.

“As has been the case in a number of NHS organisations, capital resource has been under strain. Having asked for some assistance, we are pleased to have been allocated some funding and this financial year £13.8 million has been set aside to reduce these risks.”

Chaand Nagpaul, council chair at the BMA, said there was an urgent need for an injection of capital funding to address the NHS’s “impoverished infrastructure”.



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