THE cost to repair buildings across sites at the trust which runs Colchester Hospital has reached a staggering £119million - with Colchester Hospital having a £33million backlog. 

Data has shown the cost of the backlog of repairs at the East Suffolk and North Essex Trust. 

This is £13 million more than the £106 million it cost to run ESNEFT’S estates in the year to March.

The backlog bill measures how much is needed to restore buildings to a good state and refers to maintenance work that should already have taken place rather than any that is planned.

The site requiring the most expensive work is Ipswich Hospital, with the provisional data from 2023 to 204 estimating it needs £84.3 million in maintenance and repairs.

While for Colchester Hospital provisional data shows the estate has a backlog worth £33,295,414 – which is split from high, to significant, to moderate, to medium, to low risk respectively as £1,509,500, £10,925,350, £16,402,864, and £4,457,700.

Further, ESNEFT needs about £9.8million to address all its "high risk" repairs.

This is where maintenance must be addressed with "urgent priority" to prevent catastrophic failure and major disruption.

Priority - ESNEFT director Dr Shane Gordon said high-risk sites were being prioritised Priority - ESNEFT director Dr Shane Gordon said high-risk sites were being prioritised (Image: ESNEFT) A spokesman for ESNEFT said that £4million has been allocated already to address backlog maintenance in the 2024 to 2025 financial year.

While Dr Shane Gordon, director of strategy, research and innovation at ESNEFT, said: “Our buildings must be fit for purpose and safe for patients and staff.

"Like all NHS trusts, we undertake a six-facet survey every five years at ESNEFT. This highlights what repairs we need to carry out and when. It also provides important condition rankings and risk assessments.

“These risk assessment results feed into the Trust's immediate and longer-term budget plans. We prioritise ‘high risk’ maintenance work first. This prevents disruption to clinical services and keeps everyone safe in our hospitals which is always our top priority.

"Outside of that planned work, clinical and estates teams are also quick to identify and respond to any urgent repairs in our hospitals, so patients are always safe and cared for.”

RAAC - Pam Cox MP for Colchester compared the issue to Essex RAAC found in schoolsRAAC - Pam Cox MP for Colchester compared the issue to Essex RAAC found in schools (Image: Roger Harris/Parliament) In response Pam Cox, MP for Colchester, said: “After 14 years of mismanagement by the Conservatives the truth is beginning to come out about the full extent of the problems they have left behind for Labour to clear up.

"Colchester Hospital has benefitted from new investment in recent years but this report highlights the future challenges.

“We have seen similar issues in this report in other parts of the public sector including roads that require repairs and school classrooms falling down due to RAAC concrete issues. 

“The budget taking place next week will begin to fix the foundations and start to repair public finances. That will mean some difficult decisions, but I hope that we also start to see the new investment needed to deliver growth in the economy so that we can invest in public services in the future."