More than £50 million worth of repairs need to be carried out at Gloucestershire’s main hospitals in order to bring their facilities up to scratch, according to health figures.

Data released by NHS Digital reveals the Trust that runs the hospitals in Stroud, Gloucester, and Cheltenham and Stroud is currently sitting on a backlog of £50.1million worth of repairs or replacements which should have been carried out on its buildings and equipment.

Around £12.6million worth of the outstanding jobs are classed as ‘significant risk’ repairs – meaning if Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust doesn’t prioritise them soon, they could pose a risk to safety or disrupt the delivery of care.

A spokesman for the Trust highlighted that the health body was handed £40million by NHS England in March this year to improve facilities at both Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital.

Examples of maintenance required could include upgrading software on medical equipment, maintaining generators and boilers, and ensuring the structural integrity of buildings.

According to the data, which covers the 12 months to March, problems with the Trust’s infrastructure led to 29 incidents where patients were either harmed or put at risk of harm.

There were 17,900 incidents across England during the same period, an increase of 800 in a year.

Clinical services were delayed, cancelled or otherwise affected because of problems with buildings or facilities on 62 occasions across the three sites.

Last year, the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spent £3.2million trying to reduce its backlog.

The Trust spokesman said: “Every year we support NHS Digital to publish the Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) by proactively contributing data to the report such as the costs of providing, maintaining and equipping NHS hospitals.

“It is important to clarify that we do provide high quality patient care in a safe environment which meets strict criteria as set out in the NHS codes of practice for maintaining and operating the estate.

“We very carefully assess our estates and equipment against a range of factors including potential risks and prioritise resources accordingly. The service interruptions, as we have reported in ERIC, can be caused by different circumstances such as a roof leak or when a piece of equipment is being repaired, upgraded or replaced.

“Our estates backlog is well understood by the Board and is reflective not only of the challenge we face in Gloucestershire but nationally as we look to manage buildings and infrastructure in a context of financial restraint while medical advances and expectations are continually driving standards up for the benefit of patients.

“Despite these challenges we are committed to improving the position further and will continue to work hard behind the scenes for more resources such as the recent £39.5million allocation awarded to the Hospitals Trust this year to provide improved patient facilities with around £4million ring-fenced to address some of the backlog issues identified in the ERIC report.”