Almost £70 million needed to fix crumbling Royal Berkshire Hospital

Almost £70 million is needed to clear The Royal Berkshire Hospital repair backlog, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found.

The national hospital repair bill 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, surgery and treatment waiting lists are near record highs at 7.7 million.

This is in addition to the announcement last year that a new Royal Berkshire Hospital that was originally promised by the Conservative Government by 2030 will now be delayed well into the following decade.

Reading’s Liberal Democrats are calling for the government to provide urgent investment in local hospital buildings to ensure they are safe and can function effectively. 

Reading Liberal Democrat Councillor Meri O’Connell said:

"This Conservative government has let our community's hospitals fall apart. The backlog of repairs is putting the patients and staff in Reading at risk. It is completely unacceptable and utterly disgraceful that it has been allowed to come to this.

"People in Reading deserve to know that they can go and get the treatment they need in a safe environment, not having to worry that they are being treated in a place that is collapsing around them.

"The Conservative party cannot be trusted with our NHS and cannot even be trusted to ensure the basic safety of staff and patients.

"Their neglect of our local health services is unforgivable."