Hillingdon facing health and safety risks but with 'no affordable' solution

A three-year strategy report submitted to Monitor said: “Whilst recognising that some work needs to be done in the short term, irrespective of any new estate development, further steps have been taken to better understand the condition of the estate, and specifically the risks associated with the management of the high and significant backlog maintenance.

“The trust will continue to ensure that high-risk backlog maintenance is treated as a priority. Additionally, through the current strategy which seeks to more effectively link backlog maintenance and capital expenditure into clinical strategy and site reconfiguration plans (including plans for the long term use or disposal of wards/clinical areas), strengthened strategic planning of the estate capital programme will be achieved going forward,” the report said.

“The trust board has agreed that at present there is not an affordable plan for the redevelopment of the Hillingdon site. The board has decided to take a prudent approach, building surpluses over the next five years to ensure that plans, when agreed, are affordable.”

The trust is planning to invest £26.9m in capital over the next three years, £4.5m of that through finance leases.

The report added: “The basic principle is that the trust will fully reinvest cash released through depreciation into its internally funded capital spend from 2011-12. The trust undertook a significant level of investment in the estate during 2009-10, supported by a £4m loan from the NHS Bank.”