Analysis: ‘A major part of the maintenance ‘backlog’ is currently being tackled’

By RICHARD KERLEY
Published on Saturday 11 February 2012 00:00

THERE are always certain features that characterise the release of any figures on how badly our public buildings are maintained.

We see these in this major report on the NHS estate in Scotland. Such reports show shiny, new and contemporary buildings on the cover.

The minister issues a press release with a complete wrap up of how much has been, is currently being, and is planned to be, spent on new and refurbished buildings.

The third is that either lobby groups, trade unions or newspapers will find an image of a rhone pipe leaking and rain dribbling down the wall of a concrete 50s or 60s legacy building.

That is hardly surprising when the headline figures shown by the report is a backlog of NHS maintenance costs in excess of £1 billion.

None of this is very helpful when we try to sensibly appraise the scale of the task that faces the NHS in trying to manage and maintain such a vast, varied, and sometimes poorly-used estate of 1,000 plus properties across Scotland.

Indeed, the detail of the study shows that a major part of the maintenance “backlog” is currently being tackled or is in facilities that will probably not continue in current usage.

The report is thorough and impressive in the array of estate management matters that it covers.

It is a mine of information for those interested in the NHS: total floor space; type of hospital facility; age banding of buildings by health board; tenure comparison and much more. In some parts it exposes – very usefully – what we don’t know.

This is the first in what we are promised will be annual reports and as these develop there are some areas where we should hope to see some improvement in the categorisation of data and therefore the use decision makers can put it to.

We are told that cost data “may not have been collated in a consistent way”. Similarly, space utilisation data has acknowledged inconsistencies that mean facility usage reports may be “somewhat optimistic”.

This dry comment by the authors accompanies a table showing estate usage across health boards ranging from highs of more than 90 per cent, down through 50 per cent, to an astonishing figure of around 10 per cent.

So unsurprising to me, regardless of type of organisation, when buildings appear to be poorly used, the first line of response is to dispute the classification system.

For me the report is another fascinating example of the extent to which variations of practice are found throughout what is assumed by all too many people to be a seamless and universal service.

• Professor Richard Kerley is an expert in public service management based at Queen Margaret University

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