Tens of millions of pounds are needed to repair buildings at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, new figures reveal.

Recent figures from the NHS Estates Return Information Collection show £57.9 million is needed to eradicate the backlog of maintenance needed on Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's buildings.

Amongst the trust's sites, the one requiring the most expensive work is the Alexandra Hospital with provisional statistics estimating it needs £37 million in maintenance.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust needs about £885,400 to address "high risk" repairs.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The figures quoted in the NHS Estate Return Information Collection are based on a yearly survey of the estates, taken to establish the baseline of the estates' condition and reflect any works done over the last year.

"The full sum is based on the amount required over the next 5 years.

"Due to the age of the Alexandra Hospital, this can include items such as electrical infrastructure, external and internal building fabric.

"The Trust has a rolling programme of funding allocated on a risk-rated basis to address these issues.

"In the last 12 months we have invested over £2m in improvements."

The backlog bill is a measure of how much cash is needed to restore buildings to a good state and refers to maintenance work that should already have taken place rather than any that is planned.

The cost to eradicate the backlog of NHS repairs in England now stands at £13.8 billion - up 19% from £11.6 billion the previous year.

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of health think tank The King’s Fund, said: "While this data is provisional, it is already indicating a substantial leap in the cost and severity of maintenance issues with NHS buildings and equipment.

"This will ring alarm bells for the new government as it prepares for its first autumn budget."

"Such a sizeable backlog will be a significant obstacle to the NHS increasing productivity and delivering more value for taxpayers and better quality care for patients.

"But most worryingly it also poses an increasing safety risk to staff and patients."