A ‘SCANDALOUS’ £1 million backlog of repair work is needed in Wellington Community Hospital, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary hopeful Gideon Amos revealed this week.

But NHS bosses have reassured patients they are safe to be treated in the Victorian-built hospital, in Bulford.

Research by Mr Amos found the Wellington hospital needed £1,054,111 to be spent to cover ‘significant’ and ‘moderate risk’ repairs to the 131-year-old building.

The sum was part of nearly £70 million which the Liberal Democrats said should have been spent by now on repairs to hospitals and other medical facilities across Somerset.

The total included £875,863 for the Dene Barton Hospital unit, in Cotford St Luke, and nearly £54 million on Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

Mr Amos said: “This Government is letting hospital buildings fall apart.

“The current position could put patients and staff at risk.

“It is a clear statement of the Government’s neglect of our NHS.

“People in Taunton and Wellington deserve to know that they can go and get the treatment they need in a safe environment, not having to worry that they are being treated in a place that is collapsing around them.

“The Conservative party cannot be trusted with our NHS, and today they cannot even be trusted to ensure basic building standards at our hospital buildings, neither here in Wellington, nor around the country.

“Their neglect of our local health services is unforgivable but typical of the party which tried to stop the NHS being introduced in the first place.”

Mr Amos called on the Government to deliver urgent works to repair a leaking and dilapidated maternity block in Musgrove Park Hospital, which was originally built for the US Army in the 1940s.

The research showed nearly £570,000 of the money needed for Wellington’s hospital was for work which was classed as of ‘significant risk’, while more than £173,000 of Dene Barton work was also classed as being of ‘significant risk’.

More than £1.7 million of Musgrove repairs were in the top category of ‘high risk’ and £14.2 million classed as ‘significant’.

A Somerset NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson told the Wellington Weekly: “As one of the older buildings in our NHS estate, we have an ongoing programme of general routine maintenance at Wellington Community Hospital to ensure it’s fit for the provision of services.

“All services at the hospital are unaffected by this programme and continue to run as normal.”

Mr Amos said the national hospital repair bill reached a record high of £11.6 billion last year, rising by more than £1 billion.

It came as the NHS budget was slashed by £5 billion ‘in real terms’ following Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement, while at the same time, surgery and treatment waiting lists were near record highs at 7.7 million.