Government must ‘urgently work’ to stop hospital sewage leaks, say Lib Dems

There have been almost 200 sewage leaks in Scottish hospitals within the past four years, affecting half of the country’s health boards, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.

The party, which obtained the figures using freedom of information powers, found 196 recorded incidents, with more than half of these at University Hospital Monklands in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.

Willie Rennie, the Lib Dems’ communities spokesman, said it would be “worrying news for patients across Scotland but particularly those who rely on the Monklands hospital”.

“The Scottish Government seem to be adrift without a plan,” he said.

“They must urgently work with regulators to upgrade Scotland’s Victorian sewage systems and prevent incidents like these.”

In all, seven health boards have recorded at least one sewage leak in hospitals.

They are Ayrshire and Arran, Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, and Lothian.

Mr Rennie, who is MSP for North East Fife, said: “I hope that health boards will be able to offer assurances that these issues have been addressed and will not happen again.”

The findings come after the Scottish Liberal Democrats asked all 14 health boards north of the border to detail “whether any hospitals in your area reported leaks which have resulted in sewage coming into the hospital”, including through ceilings and walls.

NHS Lanarkshire recorded the most leaks, with 137 incidents logged. They included nine at Lady Home Hospital in Douglas, five at University Hospital Wishaw, and 105 at Monklands hospital.

Monklands was designed and built more than 40 years ago, NHS Lanarkshire said, and includes ageing pipework that serves the drainage system which is a mixture of plastic and cast iron pipes, all of which are significantly deteriorated in parts.

Colin Lauder, director of planning, property and performance at the health board, said the system “experiences regular failures resulting in leaks associated with toilets, urinals and sluices”.

“There is a regular maintenance regime in place to routinely flush the horizontal drains in an attempt to minimise blockages and work is also under way to establish the feasibility of replacing old cast iron downpipes that run the length of the hospital towers and frequently block,” he said.

“A new University Hospital Monklands is planned and will be a major investment that will deliver state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient treatment to support the healthcare needs of Lanarkshire residents and patients across the West of Scotland.

“All of the other sites are buildings which are of a similar or older age than University Hospital Monklands and pipework invariably deteriorates over time, resulting in bursts and leaks.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are fully supportive of the need to properly maintain and invest in our existing estate and are doubling annual funding for maintenance.

“We will invest over £1 billion in enhancing or refurbishing existing health facilities, and updating and modernising medical equipment essential for delivering high quality medical services.”