Labour warn hundreds of potholes indicative of dire state of NHS estate

The NHS estate in England is in a “dire” state, Labour has said after uncovering the number of potholes across the health service.

The party said that since 2010 there have been 1,469 potholes reported across NHS trusts in England, costing at least £2,602,964 to repair.

According to data obtained by Labour from 60 NHS trusts, the number of potholes on NHS estates across the country has risen from 80 in 2010 to 230 in 2017.

The largest reported pothole was 7.5 metres in diameter, Labour said.

Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “It’s all very well the new Health Secretary promising a technological revolution but the NHS has a £5 billion repair backlog, uses nearly 9,000 fax machines, is reliant on thousands of outdated pieces of equipment and as our research today reveals is spending millions repairing potholes because the NHS estate is so dire.

“The Tories failed to produce a capital investment plan for the NHS in their recent announcement.

“Only Labour will provide the NHS with a fully funded capital investment plan.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Patients rightly expect world-class facilities which we are delivering through an injection of around £6 billion to transform buildings and NHS estates in need of modernisation.”

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