In only one year, Scottish health boards, including NHS Scotland, expended over £100m on maintenance charges.

The expenditure from 13 out of the 14 health boards in Scotland added up to £99,705,774 for maintenance in the fiscal year of 2022/23.

Comparatively, the expenditure in 2019/20 was £87,981,958, indicating a 7.5 per cent increase in a mere span of three years.

Labour has expressed serious worries about the spiraling costs of NHS maintenance and pointed a finger at the Scottish Government for resorting to a “sticking plaster approach”.

The party has also called upon the SNP to take decisive action to prevent further deterioration of the NHS estate.

Similarly, the Liberal Democrats have urged the Scottish Government to make sure health boards have adequate resources to invest in their facilities, instead of adopting a band-aid approach to address issues as they occur.

The tension surrounding the matter has heightened in recent months, following the announcement of a pause on all new NHS building projects.

Glasgow‘s NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the highest maintenance costs among all the health boards, shelling out over £30m in 2022/23. This figure saw a upswing by a third from £22.6m in 2019/20.

Following Glasgow, the second-highest spender was Lothian, with costs standing at £14.3m in 2022/23, up from £10.8m in 2019/20, a rise of a third.

NHS Lanarkshire’s expenditure totaled £13.9m in 2022/23, an increase from £12.6m three years prior. Ayrshire and Arran followed next with £10.4m, however, interestingly, this figure showed a drop of £600k from 2019/20.

NHS Shetland and NHS Highland demonstrated a notable surge in their maintenance costs, both more than doubling their spendings in three years.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, expressed worry over the escalating NHS maintenance costs and the pause in crucial NHS infrastructure projects, criticising the SNP’s ad-hoc approach.

Baillie urged the SNP to step up and prevent further destruction of the NHS estate. She then pledged that a Labour government in Scotland would restructure the number of NHS boards, modernising NHS services to make it community-based and future-proof.

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine also voiced her concern over the inflated sums allocated to maintenance, and emphasised the urgency for the Scottish Health Secretary to grant health boards sufficient funds for facility improvements and not just for temporary fixes.

The halt on all new NHS building projects across Scotland was announced in February due to budget restraints, casting a shadow on a dozen schemes scheduled across the nation.

No budget allocation for construction projects has been granted by the Scottish Government, hampering plans for new hospitals, surgeries, and treatment centres.

The Government promised a new NHS infrastructure plan due in spring, prioritising maintenance issues for the time being.

A spokesperson from the Scottish Government explained that maintenance costs in any year depend on the specific requirements, also influenced by inflation. They assured their continuous work with health boards to manage estate-related costs to support service delivery across the large and complex NHS estate.