A health board which has been criticised for not saying how much its maintenance backlog was has now come up with an estimate of £100 million. Swansea Bay University Health Board was one of two health boards in Wales which didn't provide details of backlog costs to the Welsh Conservatives.
The country's other five health boards had a combined maintenance backlog of £748.5 million at the end of the 2021-22 financial year - up from £307.2 million in 2017-18 - according to responses given to the Tories' freedom of information request.
The £748.5 million figure was described as "staggering" by the party's Shadow Health Minister, Russell George MS. He claimed it showed "a total lack of leadership" from Welsh Labour ministers. "Without addressing this, there is a risk of patients having treatments and operations cancelled, and by delaying work and allowing the maintenance list to spiral like this, the risk has increased," he said.
