HEALTH bosses in Lancashire and south Cumbria have given the green light to plans to tackle ageing infrastructure in the region after it was revealed nearly a quarter of NHS buildings in the area pre-date the health service.

Members of the Lancashire and south Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) approved the infrastructure strategy for 2023-2040 which sets out the health body’s aim to improve ‘functionally and physically obsolete’ buildings.

The strategy report reveals £178 million is required to tackle the backlog of maintenance for ‘ageing estate’ which poses a risk and chief finance officer Sam Proffitt told the board £100 million of this is ‘high risk’ backlog  maintenance.

In south Cumbria the Furness General Hospital requires £21.2 million and Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal £9.2 million for backlog maintenance.

The infrastructure strategy states: “The condition of our hospital estate has a marked impact on the quality of care we can provide, impacts our ability to recruit, and limits our ability to transform care.

“Our capital allocation is being spent on maintaining our ageing estate and equipment rather than on innovative transformation projects. All our hospitals were built many years ago, developed for far fewer patients and to meet historical care standards.

“They are now functionally and physically obsolete. This impacts on overcrowding, creates risks around infection and patient experience.”

The report states managing the infrastructure in the region costs £272 million a year and buildings running costs ‘continue to increase even as our footprint decreases’.

In 2023 the board stated it requires at least £5.22 billion to tackle ‘identified needs’ which includes £2.5 billion for the new hospital programme which involves completely replacing both Preston and Lancaster Hospitals.

Members of the ICB also discussed what can be achieved with the new infrastructure plan.

The partner member of the ICB, Angie Ridgwell, said: “I think our task now is to recognise this as an effective lever to achieve some of the things we are deeply committed to.

“Particularly in terms of that shift left to community-based provision and actually addressing some of the issues which we’ve talked today about children with complex needs and actually having local facilities that can meet those bespoke needs in the locations and to the quality which we require.

“For me I think this gives us a real opportunity if we use this wisely either to repurpose some of those assets to provide those facilities or to generate a receipt which means we can provide different types of facilities.”

Members of Lancashire and south Cumbria integrated care board approved the 2023-2040 infrastructure strategy on January 10 and it will now be submitted to NHS England.