Responding to the news that the cost of the NHS maintenance backlog has reached £14 billion, Kim Sunley, RCN Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing, said:
"Nursing staff are trying to deliver care in a health service that is falling apart in front of their eyes. They shouldn't have to worry about collapsing ceilings, water leaking through the walls or the presence of dangerous asbestos, but that is the daily reality for many.
“Patients and nursing staff alike are failed when the NHS Estate is allowed to decay like this. Ministers must deliver a new long-term capital funding package for the NHS, one which provides the safest facilities for nursing staff to do their jobs. It must also include ringfenced funds to tackle the safe removal of asbestos.”
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