By stewartb

The Herald amplifying and elaborating upon – on its front page no less – Tory health spokesperson, Dr Gulhane’s sighting of buckets catching rainwater from a hospital’s leaking roof, presents a fine, cutting-edge example of the best of mainstream news media serving Scotland – doesn’t it?

In its article The Herald reports: ‘Earlier this year, it was revealed that the NHS in Scotland has a high risk repair bill totalling £64,490,724.’ (As an aside, don’t you admire the journalist’s attention to detail here? Crucial to get that last £4 a mention!)

Note that the c.£64.5m figure quoted is for a ‘bill’ i.e. payment for work actually done. Is that not a good thing, or should the NHS estate not need to have repairs done, ever? For perspective, let’s have some good old whataboutery. Let’s look at the legacy of Dr Gulhane’s own Tory Party in government running the NHS in England.

From the Health Foundation (December 21, 2024) ‘The NHS maintenance backlog: rising costs and falling investment’.

‘The NHS maintenance backlog is the estimated cost of bringing NHS estates or buildings back to a minimum expected standard.

‘The maintenance backlog more than doubled in real terms between 2015/16 (£6.4bn) and 2023/24 (£13.8bn), with the fastest growth in the highest risk category (urgent repairs to prevent catastrophic failure or disruption to clinical services). Since 2021/22, the backlog has grown by £2.1bn. Over the same period, investment to reduce the backlog fell by £707m in real terms, contributing to this growth.’ (my emphasis)

These big numbers are of course for work that needs doing but under the Tories, was not done!

The Health Foundation adds: ‘The Darzi review described the NHS as an organisation suffering from ‘capital starvation’, with capital budgets repeatedly raided to pay for day-to-day spending, all the while NHS estates are crumbling. The latest NHS Estates Return Information Collection is consistent with this finding. While staff numbers have grown since the pandemic, capital spending on buildings and equipment has been flat in real terms. Despite a continued rise in the maintenance backlog – particularly in those issues presenting the greatest risk to the NHS and its patients – investment to reduce that backlog has fallen. This is compounding the ongoing deterioration of the NHS estate and contributing to the rise in the maintenance backlog.’

Given the ‘capital starvation‘ under the Tories, it seem relevant to note that The Herald quotes Gulhane demanding that the Scottish Government ‘redirect funds for repair‘. If the Tories in government in Westminster had used all the financial powers – powers unique in the UK – at their disposal in order to avoid a maintenance backlog and ensure an NHS England estate in decent condition, then it would have incurred bills amounting to well over £10bn. And such additional UK government investment in NHS England should have brought (consequential) financial benefit to the devolved governments in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh – and by extension, potentially to the NHS in these parts of the UK too!

And coming up to date, from the ‘Health Property’ website (November 3, 2025) ‘NHS backlog maintenance bill hits nearly £16bn’.

‘The publication of the annual NHS Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) for 2024/25 reveals the investment needed to restore buildings to a defined condition based on assessed risk, excluding planned maintenance, is £15.9bn – an increase of 15.7%.

‘Even more worrying is the significant increase in ‘high-risk’ backlog, which went up by 27.8% to £3.5bn, while ‘significant risk’ backlog also jumped by 14.2% to £5.6bn.’

Meanwhile in Scotland ….. For The Herald, a Tory’s tale of a few buckets to catch rainwater from a leaky roof of a large, complex building generates front page news! Serious politics allied to serious journalism? We are not well served!

High risk backlog bill in England - £3.5bn.

In Scotland, £65 million or pro rata £650m, barely a FIFTH of the bill in England?