A new report shows that the cost of urgent repairs required to NHS hospitals is nearly £1bn.
The cost of undertaking urgent “high-risk” maintenance in hospitals has increased from £775.5m to £947.1m in the last year – a rise of 22%.
The figures, published by the NHS’ statistical arm, also show the money needed has more than doubled from £458m in 2014-15.
The report says the high-risk repairs “must be addressed with urgent priority to prevent catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services or deficiencies in safety liable to cause serious injury or prosecution”.
A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said it is working with trusts to help reduce the backlog of repairs.