NHS patients are at high risk from raw sewage, leaking roofs, pests and ageing fire safety infrastructure thanks to years of Tory funding cuts running up huge NHS maintenance bills.

New figures obtained by the Labour Party and published today show that 95 per cent of NHS trusts contacted pest control services between 2015 and last year, with over 12,000 such calls recorded during that time.

Birmingham and Solihull Trust alone called pest control services 777 times.

Seventy per cent of the trusts called about rodent infestations, 73 per cent about ants and 66 per cent about wasps.

Also, 71 per cent of the trusts had leaking or broken roofs, with at least 3,500 separate incidents reported between 2015 and 2017.

Some trusts reported hundreds of incidents related to damaged roofs, with the Airedale trust recording 314.

The Mid-Cheshire trust said that an X-ray department’s leaking roof had caused a “delay in possible cancer diagnosis.”

Broken or leaking sewage pipes also caused problems for 60 per cent of the trusts, with at least 678 separate incidents.

Taunton and Somerset reported one incident where raw sewage meant that the trust was “unable to escalate unwell patients’ care to recovery area.”

Labour obtained the information about the high-risk maintenance backlog through a freedom of information request, which received responses from 143 of England’s 229 acute, community and mental health trusts.
 
Shadow health minister Justin Madders blamed the NHS funding crisis for the deteriorating condition of the health service’s buildings.

The government has used £3.8 billion from NHS capital budgets over the past four years to plug holes in revenue budgets, he said.
 
Forty-two of the trusts gave details of outstanding repairs, reporting £13 million worth of outstanding fire maintenance and £4.4m in roof repairs.

Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust alone reported an over £4m maintenance backlog, while Western Sussex Hospitals Trust reported over £3.3m in outstanding fire and roof maintenance work.

Mr Madders said: “The government urgently needs to take action to tackle these dangerous conditions.

“There is now an urgent need for greater NHS funding — ministers must take action to make our NHS safe.”

GMB national secretary Rehana Azam said: “The best 70th birthday present our health service could have is proper funding.”