An MP has called for the Government to fix "crumbling" NHS buildings and address a £75 million repair backlog at Shropshire's hospitals.
North Shropshire MP, Helen Morgan led a debate in Parliament this week, demanding the Government address a "catalogue of issues" facing hospitals in the region.
North Shropshire MP, Helen Morgan led a debate in Parliament this week, demanding the Government address a "catalogue of issues" facing hospitals in the region.
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00:00Our hospital buildings is a national scandal. Everybody in this country should be in control
00:11of their own lives and their own health. And that means everybody should get the care they need,
00:17when they need it, and where they need it. But that can never be realised while so many
00:23patients are treated in settings that are grossly inadequate. From Shropshire to Cornwall
00:28to Cambridgeshire, Watford and Devon, patients are losing their dignity because of decisions
00:33taken by the Conservatives and the current Labour government's failure to rectify them.
00:38The Conservatives' record is one of starved repair budgets, sewage leaks, crumbling ceilings
00:44and bucket-strewn wards. It is an outrage that millions of people are waiting for treatment
00:50and yet overcrowded hospitals have had to close operating theatres because they are no longer
00:55fit for use. Patients and the staff who work in hospitals deserve the dignity of safe, modern
01:02and clean environments. But instead, the last government shamefully chose to raid the repair
01:07budget to plug the gap in day-to-day costs as our hospitals fell apart. And now the new
01:13government, having been elected on what is increasingly looking like false hope, is pursuing a false
01:18economy by delaying the desperately needed new hospitals programme. Like so much of its agenda,
01:25having promised so much, the government is delivering so little and betraying those who put their faith
01:29in the Labour Party. Farmers who were fed up with the Tories, who took them for granted, have been hit
01:35by a tax grab on their families' futures. Employers who were promised growth and no new taxes have been
01:41whacked by an increase to national insurance. And patients who were promised new hospitals have had
01:45them taken away from them. We need to ensure that no one is treated in broken, uncomfortable and unsafe
01:52facilities. Repairing and replacing, as I have just said, crumbling substandard hospitals is not
01:57only vital for delivering better care and treating more patients, it is crucial for rebuilding the economy
02:03after years of economic vandalism. So how much does all this cost? In my county of Shropshire, the cost of
02:09the maintenance backlog across all the sites has reached about £75 million. And I'm sure everyone
02:15here would agree that £75 million is a lot of money. Indeed, it's so much that it's the total amount of
02:21capital investment the government has given for hospices this year. But in terms of hospital
02:26maintenance, it's a drop in the ocean. Hospitals like Tall Bay need more than £50 million to clear the
02:31backlog. Hospitals like Watford have a backlog of £63 million, I will in a moment, while Hull Rural Infirmary requires
02:38an eye-watering £70 million. Across England, the figure is a colossal £13.8 billion. And that is just to bring
02:46our existing hospital estate up to a minimum standard. Even hospitals with comparatively few maintenance problems,
02:53like Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, which serves my constituents with its £35 million backlog, are clearly a long way
02:59short of being up to standard. Now I'm not going to go into detail again today about the catalogue of issues in Shropshire,
03:05the ambulance delays, the ambulance station closures, the waiting times for check-ups, scans and surgeries,
03:11the substandard state of cancer care. But all this is combining to put huge pressure on hospitals
03:17where both the staff and the buildings are straining under the load. And obviously car parking is a real
03:21problem, particularly where public transport is poor, something that plagues my constituents. And when it's
03:28unrealistically expensive for people who need to use the hospital facilities. So I thank him for that point.
03:38The point of the NHS crisis is that it impacts on patient outcomes. So patients like my constituent Emma
03:47was left in the fit to sit area for 48 hours, despite having been diagnosed with suspected sepsis.
03:53A 96-year-old Mary waited in an ambulance outside for 11 hours. And 82-year-old Paula spent 24 hours
04:00on a trolley in a corridor. And this is the reality of hospitals up and down the country.
04:06I think we are all agreed that that is a disgrace and it needs to be rectified.