St. Richard’s Hospital and other Sussex Hospitals face huge maintenance backlog

Hospitals in Sussex, including St. Richard’s, face growing costs to ensure their buildings and facilities are safe. According to the most recent hospital repair data, Sussex NHS Foundation Trust needs £76.5 million to fix all its hospitals. £10.5million is needed to fix St. Richard’s alone. This article is contributed by a member of the community.

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The estimated cost to repair Britain’s NHS hospitals reached a record high of £11.6 billion last year, rising by over £1 billion. It comes as the NHS budget was slashed by £5 billion in real terms following the Autumn Statement.

At the same time, the UK’s surgery and treatment waiting lists are near record highs at 7.7 million. At the start of the winter period West Sussex had the third worst NHS waiting times in the country with 165,460 local people on waiting lists in September 2023.

“Every day, I meet people who know someone waiting for hospital treatment. This Conservative government cannot keep ignoring statistics that demonstrate the shocking underinvestment in our national health service and the impact that is having on patients. The Liberal Democrats recognise that like other large national institutions, the NHS needs to adapt to changing times, technology, and practices – but it cannot be expected to do this with a lack of resources and political commitment.

Jess Brown-Fuller, candidate MP for Chichester at St. Richard’s Hospital

The NHS is one of the UK’s greatest achievements and the people that work in it are rightly proud of the difference they make. I am appalled that this government expects, even demands, that our “pandemic heroes” should have to make up for the underfunding of the NHS.” said Jess Brown-Fuller, the Liberal Democrat’s parliamentary candidate for Chichester.