ERIC 2022 - Another rise in Backlog Maintenace

On Thursday the annual ERIC report was published by NHS Digital (1). This showed that, among many other things, the cost to rectify backlog maintenance within the NHS has increased for its 9th year in a row (table1), showing its third largest percentage rise (10.5%) and second largest rise in financial value (£1.02b) since 2011/12.

In the last blog I stated that we would likey see backlog in excess of £10b, possibly as high as £12b. While we did not reach such hights of £12b, an NHS with backlog of over £10b is worrying. However, what is more worrying is that 69% of the increase was seen in High and Significant categories.

With only £524m of capital funds being spent on maintaining existing buildings, and only around 4% of the old buildings being demolished as part of the New Hospital Programme, I can only see the level of backlog maintenace increasing within NHS England.

While it is yet to be proven whether there is any corelation between the level of backlog maintenance and levels of reported harm through the National Patient Safety Agency, the graph below does highlight that both are increasing.

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References

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection/england-2021-22