Maintenance staff are under such severe strain at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital that basic tasks such as changing a lightbulb can take over a year, it has been claimed.
NHS Tayside is struggling to deal with thousands of unfixed electrical and mechanical issues, many of which date as far back as 2019.
These include two broken ventilation systems as well as various issues in non-patient areas.
Of these, a leaking pipe in ICU — first flagged 18 months ago — is still outstanding while several lightbulbs are awaiting replacements.
Lights have also been out in non-patient areas of the Covid-19 ICU ward since April this year.
The jobs should be completed within seven days, according to the health board’s fault reporting procedures.
Workload is ‘unbearable’ for staff
A whistleblower says the tasks can’t be done because the estates team only has about 60% of the employees required.
They claim when vacancies arise they are not filled, and there are currently 79 vacant positions in what is usually a 202-person department.
The worker said: “The workload is unbearable — it is causing some of the remaining staff members to be off with work-related stress.
“The trouble is, how do you prioritise one urgent job over another? It’s going to take a serious incident before they listen.
“There are so many jobs piling up it means we are at the stage now we are prioritising which emergency to attend first.
“It takes around a year to have a lightbulb changed in a non-patient area.
“We have thousands upon thousands of jobs outstanding.”
Financial pressures
It followed years of turmoil, including a charity cash scandal.
One of the methods used was to reduce spending on staff wages through “natural staff turnover” such as choosing not to replace employees when they retire.
NHS Tayside say more than 1,000 calls are received by the maintenance team every week and jobs for clinical areas are prioritised.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “Our multi-trade and estates team supports the ongoing delivery of safe care across our many acute sites and other premises.
“If staff identify a problem with a piece of equipment or require repairs, they call the dedicated estates helpline, with around 200 maintenance calls to the line every day.
“Jobs requested can include replacing light bulbs, repairs to small appliances and fixing faulty non-medical equipment or furniture.
“As you would expect, requests for clinical areas are prioritised, however the estates team works hard to ensure a responsive service is provided across our sites.”
Restructure almost complete
The health board stressed a recruitment campaign will be launched soon to fill posts once a restructure is complete.
The spokesperson said: “We are currently expanding our professional estates workforce to ensure our hospital sites are appropriately maintained.
“NHS Tayside, and trades union colleagues, have just finished a full review of the estates workforce structure.
“Final updated job descriptions have been agreed and a team will now match existing staff into the new structure’s job roles. Once this process is complete, a recruitment campaign will be launched to fill any remaining vacancies or new posts.
“Estates staff have been kept fully informed and engaged throughout the process and will continue to receive regular updates.”
Fears Ninewells Hospital is at ‘breaking point’ due to staff shortages