Rishi Sunak’s pledge to cut the NHS waiting list backlog is being threatened by the crumbling concrete crisis as affected hospitals warn they will be forced to shut wards and theatres.
Hospitals were told they had buildings prone to collapse in 2019 but four years later they are still dealing with the issue.
In a report last year, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust leaders said that work to replace reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in its hospitals would hit general surgery, urology, gynaecology and orthopaedic care.
Wards have had to close, piling pressure on a crowded A&E as patients can’t be offloaded due to lack of beds, and threatening its ability to hit government targets to reduce waiting lists, it added.
The warning comes as Sir Keir Starmer used Prime Minister’s Questions to attack Mr Sunak over the crisis. He argued that “the cowboys are running the country” and asked the PM if he was “ashamed” of the scandal caused by 13 years of “botched jobs”.
Source: The Independent, 6 September 2023
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