Hospital floods and fires surge as building failures disrupt patient care 6,700 times last year

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

Lib Dems demand Burnham treats Britain’s crumbling hospitals as a national crisis, as fires rose by almost a third (32%) and floods at hospital sites almost doubled (94%).

New NHS figures also show that the bill to fix England’s crumbling hospitals has soared by £3.5 billion in just two years with leaks, power failures and broken equipment disrupting patient care 6,697 times in the last financial year.

The NHS repair backlog has hit a new record of £17.3 billion, up from £15.9 billion last year and £13.8 billion two years ago, a rise of more than a quarter. Of this, £3.7 billion is classed as “high risk”, meaning urgent repairs are needed to prevent catastrophic failure, major disruption to services or serious injury.

The figures come despite the Government increasing investment to reduce the backlog to £1.65 billion last year. That is still less than a tenth of what is needed, and the backlog grew by almost as much again.

The site with the largest backlog in the country is Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith (£468m). It is followed by St Thomas’ Hospital in Waterloo (£332m), St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington (£326m) and Northwick Park in Harrow (£311m). Airedale General Hospital in West Yorkshire faces a £294 million bill, £273 million of it rated high risk.

The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly warned that the Government’s “dither and delay” over the New Hospital Programme is storing up problems for patients and taxpayers. The party is renewing its call for a crumbling hospitals taskforce at the heart of government, to oversee a ten year investment programme, and for delayed hospital projects to be brought forward.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP, said:

“The state of our crumbling hospitals is a national scandal, and it is getting worse every year. Patients are having operations cancelled and wards closed because of leaking roofs, failing power supplies and broken ventilation. Rising floods and fires show that even basic safety cannot be guaranteed. I dread to think how our broken, overcrowded hospitals will cope in the face of the coming winter crisis.

“The repair bill has soared by £3.5 billion in just two years. Ministers can’t keep patching up buildings that are falling apart and hoping for the best. It’s a false economy that leaves patients waiting longer and costs taxpayers more in the long run.

“The Government must set up a crumbling hospitals taskforce to fix crumbling wards and bring forward the hospital projects it has delayed, so patients can be treated in buildings that are safe and fit for purpose.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The number of recorded fires increased from 987 to 1298, and the number of floods triggering a risk assessment rose from 391 to 758 between 2024/5 and 2025/6. Source: NHS England, Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) 2025/26, published 15 October 2026: here
• The 2023/24 backlog figure (£13.8bn) is from ERIC 2023/24, as cited in previous Liberal Democrat releases.
• Lost clinical time is the sum of hours reported by each site for its three most clinically impactful types of infrastructure failure.
• Previous releases: Investment in fixing crumbling hospitals falls by nearly 40% (April 2025) and Davey calls for crumbling hospitals taskforce (February 2025).