Cardiff hospitals require £80 million maintenance work

12.00.00am GMT Wed 20th Jan 2010

Rachael Hitchinson, Welsh Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Cardiff West, has called on the government to take urgent action to fix the £80 million maintenance backlog in Cardiff's hospitals and health services.

Her comments come following a report by Welsh Health Estates which show a total maintenance backlog of £505 in the Welsh NHS. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for the government to bring forward a strategy to deal with the problem, which includes £82 million of high risk maintenance and £159 million of serious risk maintenance.

In Cardiff, over £40 million of maintenance is required for statutory and safety reasons and a further £230,000 to comply with fire safety and disability discrimination legislation.

Rachael Hitchinson said:

"There is a serious threat to the safety of both staff and patients within the NHS due to how dire the state of the buildings that make up the health service have become."

"There needs to be an urgent plan created to deal with the most serious repairs and to make sure our hospitals comply with health and safety laws. If a pub was in this state, they would not be allowed to open. Why should we expect our Doctors and Nurses to work in these conditions?"

"The Labour/Plaid Welsh Assembly Government don't seem to think that this is a problem, but there are already stats that show problems with the NHS infrastructure have caused injuries and deaths to patients. The Welsh Liberal Democrats think this is unacceptable and that patients in Cardiff deserve better than this."