NHS maintenance backlog soars to more than £1.3bn, figures show

The maintenance backlog facing Scotland’s NHS now tops a “staggering” £1.3 billion since the SNP took office in 2007.

The cost, obtained by the Scottish Conservatives, is a rise of £200 million on data reported earlier this year by Audit Scotland. The figure comes from April this year so may now be even higher.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the scale of repairs are a “damning indictment” on how the SNP have “shamefully neglected” Scotland's health service for more than 17 years.

He has also alleged that successive SNP health secretaries have allowed “crucial” healthcare services to fall into a state of disrepair and warned there is no coordinated plan to tackle the backlog.

He said: “The maintenance backlog costs facing Scotland’s NHS have hit staggering levels.

“In the space of a few months, this bill has escalated by over £200 million on the SNP’s watch. These figures are a damning indictment of how the nationalists have shamefully neglected our health service over the past 17 years.

“Successive SNP health secretaries have had their eye off the ball and allowed crucial health care services to fall into a total state of disrepair which ultimately impacts patients and staff, as well as health boards' budgets.”

Dr Gulhane added: “In light of these figures, it is little wonder independent auditors think the SNP have no vision for our NHS when they can’t even support its basic upkeep.

“The eye-watering sum of money that is going to be needed to tackle these maintenance costs only takes more money away from the frontline where the SNP are overseeing record waiting lists and worsening A&E waiting times.

“Neil Gray needs to accept his current approach is not working and change it before these costs spiral completely out of control.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson pointed to announcements made in Finance Secretary Shona Robison’s Budget earlier this month.

The spokesperson said: “If approved by parliament, the draft Budget will provide more than £1bn capital investment, with £140m additional funding towards maintenance of the existing estate, essential equipment and digital replacement.

“Our commitment to renew our NHS means we will also be seeking to start the work in 2025-26 on delivering new acute facilities.

“That includes replacing Monklands Hospital, the Belford Hospital, and delivering a new Eye Pavilion elective centre in NHS Lothian, helping to reduce backlog maintenance levels when these projects are completed.”

The Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh is currently closed for urgent repairs and is not expected to reopen until well into next year.

Patients with appointments at the clinic have been receiving treatment elsewhere in Edinburgh and the Lothians while waste pipes are repaired and asbestos is removed from the building.

NHS Lothian said the facility, which opened in 1969, required “extensive work” but services will be distributed across the health board in the meantime.

Plans to replace the Chalmers Street building, which was deemed unfit for purpose in 2015, have been shelved due to budget pressures.

Inpatient services and day surgery appointment have been move to St John’s Hospital in Livingston while the building is closed, while emergency ophthalmology care will be treated at a temporary home in the nearby Lauriston Building.

Other services have been made accessible for patients at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People’s department of clinical neurosciences and East Lothian Community Hospital.

A £45m replacement eye hospital at the Royal Infirmary campus at Little France was agreed in 2018, but the Scottish Government later withdrew funding.

In 2021 then Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said a new eye hospital would be part of a £10bn investment over 10 years.

The cost to replace the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion has since been put at £123m.