One of Scotland’s largest hospitals urgently needs a £90 million upgrade, The Courier can reveal.
Sources at Ninewells claim there are “major electrical infrastructure issues” in the near-half century old facility.
Bosses at NHS Tayside will ask the Scottish Government for the cash in the coming weeks to carry out vital upgrades.
An insider at the hospital said the work was vital, adding: “The ring main is shot, it’s still 1960s/70s vintage in places, and there are problems with doing maintenance due to the physical state of the wiring.
“It will take the wiring failing, causing a power cut and possibly a death before something is done. The state of it is atrocious.
“There is old fashioned paper insulation and the meters are all the old ones with multiple dials.”
The funding NHS Tayside will ask for is unconnected to bail-out money the health board has required from the Scottish Government for the past three years.
It has needed the extra cash to address budget shortfalls but this request is for a specific large-scale project rather than being a result of the numbers failing to add up.
A spokeswoman for the health board said: “NHS Tayside is currently developing a long-term investment plan for Ninewells Hospital which includes work to ensure the resilience of the electrical infrastructure of the site.
“Ninewells is now more than 50 years old in some areas and there is a detailed piece of work ongoing to plan an infrastructure programme over the next five to eight years. NHS Tayside developed a draft plan in early 2016 for an eight-year programme of work at Ninewells totalling around £90m.
“This plan is now being further developed jointly with NHS staff and Scottish Government colleagues and a draft Initial Agreement which details the infrastructure works which will require to be undertaken, the associated investment needs and proposed timescales for a phased delivery will be submitted to Scottish Government in the coming weeks.
“As you would expect, there is continual maintenance across the extensive Ninewells site and ongoing investment in the site’s infrastructure to ensure we can continue to deliver high-quality, sustainable and safe service delivery for our patients.
“There are also new developments under way and planned on the Ninewells site, including a new build for the NHS Scotland Pharmaceutical Specials Service which started at the beginning of 2017 and the soon-to-be-complete Ninewells Energy Centre.
“All future projects on the site will be planned taking into account their particular infrastructure requirements.”
Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour’s health spokesman, said: “Given the age of the infrastructure, it is clear that this investment in Ninewells is urgently required.
“It is just one example of the many financial pressures facing our health service.
“One way to ease the pressure on our hospitals is to invest in social care. But instead of doing that, the SNP is planning a £327 million cut to services run by local authorities, including social care.
