NHS hospitals are being forced to choose between “fixing the roof or paying their nurses” due to a Tory raid on vital resources.

The stark reality of the NHS funding crisis is laid bare today with new figures which show a staggering £4.29 billion has been cut from capital budgets to prop up day-to-day spending.

It comes after 76 hospital trusts reported incidents due to building failures in the last year, including sewage and water leaking onto hospital wards, broken lifts and ceilings collapsing.

One hospital trust reported faeces seeping through the floor in an ultrasound corridor.

Another recounted a horrific scene where staff tried to clear a blocked drain, which led to dirt, faeces and slime spurting up through the sink and landing on a patient’s bed.

A string of hospitals reported broken down lifts, which led to patients and staff being trapped inside, cancellations of appointments and patients unable to be transported for urgent care.

(Image: Getty Images)

The raided funds are usually used to repair hospital buildings and facilities, buy new equipment and invest in IT systems.

But new Commons figures show billions have been transferred since 2014 from capital budgets to revenue budgets, used to pay staff and keep hospitals operating on a daily basis.

The backlog of ‘high risk’ maintenance in NHS facilities would now cost at least £1 billion to fix.

And the total maintenance backlog increased from £5.5 billion to £6 billion over the last year.

The new figures came as Boris Johnson was expected to outline plans for the NHS this weekend.

But it emerged this week that Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s top aide, said in a speech two years ago: "I know a lot of Tory MPs and I am sad to say the public is basically correct.

" Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people.

(Image: PA)

"They don’t care about the NHS . And the public has kind of cottoned on to that.”

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Jeremy Corbyn said: “Boris Johnson’s own top adviser admits the Tories don’t care about the NHS.

“And the evidence of Tory neglect is clear before us. They’ve cut billions of pounds from vital repair and maintenance of our hospital buildings, with hospitals having to choose between fixing the roof and paying their nurses.”

On the steps of Number 10, Mr Johnson pledged to “upgrade” 20 hospitals in his first week in office.

But two weeks after becoming PM no details of the “upgrades” have been announced.

Mr Johnson is expected to unveil a raft of commitments for Health and Social Care spending this weekend, including a hospital building programme.

But Mr Corbyn said the PM’s promises would just be “tinkering around the edges.”

He said: “The Tories chose to pay off the bankers and cut taxes for the rich rather than fund our NHS and now our most valuable service is in a state of crisis.

“Johnson is now coming along pretending he’s going to do something about it but it will be just tinkering around at the edges when the NHS needs proper money.”

(Image: Getty)

As well as building maintenance, the raided budgets are intended to be spent on upgrading equipment and IT systems.

An investigation in June found more than 11,000 fax machines are still in operation in the NHS in England.

Vital and lifesaving NHS equipment is outdated, with at least 1,761 pieces of NHS equipment more than a decade old still in use.

These include hundreds of X-ray machines and ultrasound machines which are past their replacement dates.

Last month the fire brigade warned four NHS Trusts parts of their hospitals face being shut down because they are so decrepit they pose a risk to patients and staff.

With hospitals crumbling and staff struggling with obsolete equipment, the NHS is still chronically short-staffed, with more than 100,000 vacancies open in England.

Since 2010, the NHS has lost 200,000 nurses, according to the Labour Party’s analysis.

(Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)

Yesterday the NHS Confederation - which represents 500 organisations in the NHS, voluntary and independent sectors - wrote to Mr Johnson with a “to-do” list of priorities for the Health Service.

The letter urged him to resolve the staffing shortfall and provide extra money for new buildings, infrastructure and social care.

And the group said the question of long-term NHS funding is not fully resolved and that the pensions crisis must be addressed ahead of winter, which will bring increased pressure.

In response to the letter, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has made clear his commitment to the NHS, and to reforming the social care system.

“As he said outside Downing Street, we will shortly begin work on 20 hospital upgrades, and ensure that money for the NHS really does get to the front line.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “Thanks to our record funding increase the NHS will get an extra £33.9bn every year by 2023/24 and the Prime Minister has been clear that we are committed to investing in the NHS and making it fit for the future.

“We’ve supported 150 local projects with £2.4billion to modernise NHS buildings and frontline services across the country since 2017, and we have said we will consider proposals from the NHS for more capital to support their Long Term Plan.”

'This scandal proves - the Tories just don't care about our NHS'

Comment by Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary

Hospitals are literally falling apart.

Wards are evacuated as ceilings collapse, sewage pipes burst and appliances catch fire.

Crumbling hospitals means vital surgery is cancelled and urgent diagnosis delayed putting patients lives at risk thanks to the Tory smash and grab raid on NHS budgets.

A massive £4 billion which should have been spent on beds and modern new equipment was slashed from the infrastructure budgets by the Tories in order to plug gaps in the day to day running of the NHS.

It’s left our hospitals with a £6 billion repair bill now spiralling out of control.

And even when the Tories say they are putting in more money to upgrade hospitals shockingly less than three per cent of it makes it to the front line.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Heath Chief Matt Hancock couldn’t run a whelk stall never mind the NHS.

Years of Tory cuts have pushed our NHS to the brink – people wait longer to see a GP, A&Es are in crisis. Mental health services are failing our vulnerable children and young people.

We are now desperately short of 40,000 nurses.

Boris Johnson ’s real priority is selling off our NHS to Donald Trump – it will mean more privatisation of health services and force us to buy more expensive medicines

The truth is, as Johnson’s top adviser has admitted: Tory MPs simply don’t care about the NHS.

How Britain's hospitals are crumbling around the country

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

- A ceiling collapsed on a side ward

- Water leaked from the ceiling on the top of the maternity landing.

- A lift broke down trapping two nurses inside.



Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

- Call bells were broken on a ward.

- Faeces found coming through the floor on the ultrasound corridor.



Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

- A waste pipe above a ward broke, which resulted in waste leaking into the ward area.

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

- Part of the Emergency Department was closed due to a “severe” sewage leak in December 2018.

George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust

- Estates were trying to clear a drain, which resulted in dirt/faeces/slime spurting up through a sink. This landed on a patient’s bed, and covered the floor and surrounding area.

- A “severe” leak from the roof by the maternity unit. Store cupboards were soaked, and water was going into electric fittings.

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust

- A lift which had initially had a jammed door, stopped working. Staff and patients were unable to use the lift and this impacted on patient care.

Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

- Water poured on to a ward bed from the ceiling and patients had to be moved.



Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust

- Sewage was coming up through the drains in bathrooms, water flooded into the ward corridor. Only one shower room was able to be used for 19 patients.

Royal Liverpool Hospitals

- Flooded 10 times in 2018. Patients were forced to wait outside in ambulances while staff are seen struggling to transfer a woman to fifth-floor intensive care because the lifts were out of action.

- Construction work at the Hospital’s £335m replacement building stalled last year after the collapse of Carillion - but has since restarted, and is due to open in 2020.



Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

- Due to water leaking from pipes, there were delays to patients being operated on – operating time had to be reduced and some were cancelled, or re-located to other operating theatres.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust

- Several lifts were out of service. There was no access to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) for catering trolleys, bed or patients. A patient was left on the Clinical Decisions Unit in a wheelchair, as they were unable to access CCU for treatment.



Solent NHS Trust

- A burst pipe meant no x-rays could be taken



Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust

- A ceiling panel on a ward collapsed, but fortunately missed the patients

Whittington Health NHS Trust

- Lift failure, with people reportedly trapped in a lift

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

- There have been reports of “ceiling leakage” and tiles falling off on numerous areas on a ward.

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- On one occasion the maternity was very cold, and staff struggled to keep babies warm.

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

- Lift failure made it impossible to get immobile patients - some of whom needed urgent surgery - upstairs. Appointments had to be cancelled.