§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)A £17 billion improvement programme is being undertaken to improve the NHS estate. As a result of this investment the amount of the estate dating from before 1948 has halved since 1995. However, because of flaws in the current methodology, backlog maintenance figures do not reflect these improvements. A validation exercise has been undertaken on the 2002–03 backlog maintenance figures, prompted by concerns expressed by the NHS that these figures were both unrealistically high and not being consistently calculated and collected across the NHS.
We have decided to revise the way we measure backlog maintenance to give a more accurate picture of the condition of the NHS estate, to give the NHS a clearer idea of its priorities in improving its buildings and to allow managers to continue making the improvements that will build even better environments for both patients and staff. It will help the Healthcare Commission more accurately to measure NHS performance on the new national standards.
To ensure the estate continues to be maintained and improved, a much more constructive and consistent revised backlog measure—risk adjusted backlog maintenance—has been developed with the NHS. This places greater emphasis on identifying and measuring 8WS risk to business continuity and safety to patients, visitors and staff and has a greater focus on the quality of the estate and the remaining life of the building.
Backlog maintenance figures and the estimated risk adjusted figures for 2003–04 have been placed in the Library.