Buckinghamshire NHS Trust faces £100 million high-risk repairs backlog

The Bucks NHS Trust faces a £100 million repairs backlog, new data for the county has revealed.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust had the fourth largest high-risk repairs backlog (general acute hospitals only) of all trusts in England in 2022-2023.

The backlog stood at £100,800,283 during this period, according to new figures compiled by the BBC Shared Data Unit.

The trust said the huge figure related to the age of its buildings and the cost of the continual upkeep of Wycombe Hospital’s tower, which is in a ‘poor condition’.

In a statement on its website, the trust said: “The Wycombe Hospital site has an unaffordable backlog of maintenance requirements, around one hundred million pounds worth, £80 million of which is related to the tower.”

The tower, which houses an intensive care unit and operating theatres, costs the trust around £2 million a year to monitor its condition.

Wycombe Hospital, built over several phases from the 1960s, is the trust’s main site for planned (elective) surgery.

It also offers some specialist treatments and includes the Urgent Treatment Centre for minor injuries and conditions.

The trust said many of its buildings ‘do not meet the needs of modern-day healthcare’, including Stoke Mandeville Hospital that was originally established as a cholera hospital in the 1830s.