Lib Dems to spend £1bn a year on restoring crumbling hospitals

The Liberal Democrats have pledged to spend £1bn a year on refitting and restoring crumbling NHS hospitals if elected on 4 July.

Daisy Cooper (c) UK Parliament

Daisy Cooper (c) UK Parliament

The party's analysis has found 4.4m patients were expected to be treated in dangerous hospital buildings at the seven hospital trusts most impacted by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) by 2030, including 2.8m over 65s and 465,000 children.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘After years of failure, voters simply do not trust the Conservatives to fix the scandal of dangerous concrete in our hospitals.'

According to NHS data, only four of the 58 hospitals identified as having dangerous RAAC buildings have fixed the issue so far. None of the seven hospitals identified as the most affected by the RAAC scandal have yet had the problem eradicated.

One of these seven hospitals is Frimley Park in Michael Gove's Surrey Heath constituency, where RAAC was identified in 65% of the hospital, resulting in the closure of half of the hospital's ICU and two operating theatres at various times of the last few years.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers said: ‘Pledges of greater investment in the NHS estate are welcome, but we must not underestimate the scale of the challenge at hand. Trusts face £11.6bn backlog of essential repairs - up by more than 13% since 2021-22.

‘The next Government must commit to equipping the NHS with the resources it needs now and in the long term – and not just in hospitals but in mental health, community health and ambulance services, too.'

 

 

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