A health board is facing a £200m maintenance bill to repair its ageing hospitals and medical centres, it emerged yesterday.
A health board is facing a £200m maintenance bill to repair its ageing hospitals and medical centres, it emerged yesterday.
Documents released to the Labour Party under Freedom of Information (FoI) rules revealed NHS Grampian's maintenance backlog bill.
Labour claimed the situation could damage health services and put patients at greater risk of superbugs because health chiefs were putting off carrying out costly repairs.
The party also accused the Scottish Government of making the situation worse by demanding NHS Grampian made cuts of around £26m next year.
Health chiefs confirmed the costs outlined in their answer to the FoI request were accurate but rebutted the concerns. They stressed that the bill, built up over "many years", was misleading because of a bigger £330m, 10-year investment in new buildings which would effectively wipe out the need for the repairs.
They also expressed confidence that they would have the funds to turn the modernisation programme into reality.
Outlining Labour's view of the bill, north-east Labour MSP Richard Baker said: "A £200m maintenance backlog in NHS Grampian will be of huge concern to patients and to people throughout the area. Further cuts in local budgets mean that vital building improvements will be delayed and that doesn't just mean concerns over health and safety and patient care, but also over the spread of hospital-acquired infections."
A spokesman for NHS Grampian said it would be able to make "major inroads" into the backlog by pushing ahead with its "ambitious modernisation programme", including a new emergency care centre and a health village.
He added: "NHS Grampian is committed to unprecedented levels of capital investment in new facilities, which will eliminate the need to carry out much of the backlog."
