The NHS has spent almost £4million paying property taxes on empty buildings in just three years, official figures reveal.
Dozens of hospitals, more than 15 GP surgeries and nursing homes and 22 office blocks are lying vacant, according to statistics from NHS Property Services.
The figure, uncovered by a Freedom of Information request from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, could pay for around 120 junior doctors or 140 newly-qualified nurses.
The NHS values the neglected estate, comprised of 77 buildings, at £40million.
Experts, who labelled the findings ‘shocking’ for taxpayers, today urged the health service to ‘quickly sell these sites’.
Neglected estates include Bootham Park Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Yorkshire and Guisborough General Hospital, in Cleveland. The westgate annex of Edgware Community Hospital and meadow suite at Babington Hospital in Derbyshire are among other closed sites
According to the FOI data, the health service paid £1.2million in property taxes on the buildings in 2020/21 — the first year of the pandemic, when the NHS was battered by a surge in Covid admissions, coupled with staff sickness and burnout.
The sum rose to £1.5million in 2021/22.
In 2022/23, some £1.2million of property taxes were recorded.
Of the 77 sites, 50 have been identified for sale, with estimated market value of around £40million.
The remaining 27 sites remain ‘subject to strategic review for future NHS requirements’, according to NHS Property Services.
Almost two thirds (47) of the sites were parts of hospitals, health centres or nursing and care homes.
One empty site, in Corbett Hospital in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, is even listed as a swimming pool.
Other neglected estates include Bootham Park Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Yorkshire and Guisborough General Hospital, in Cleveland.
The westgate annex of Edgware Community Hospital and meadow suite at Babington Hospital in Derbyshire are among other closed sites.
NHS Property Services was initially established in 2013 to manage estates on behalf of 150 now abolished Primary Care Trusts and 10 Strategic Health Authorities.
It now manages around 2,700 assets across England.
A key aspect of the body’s mandate is to use ‘the company’s scale and effective management of its portfolio to keep costs to a minimum and pass back savings to the NHS’.
The health service, which gets more than £150billion-a-year, spends just under 43 per cent on paying around 1.2million full-time equivalent staff.
The rest is spent on prescribing patients drugs, administration, primary care and procurement, including controversial private finance initiatives (PFI) deals, which cost hundreds of millions of pounds in interest payments alone.
Labour’s botched PFI contracts — expanded to the NHS when it was last in power — saw private firms paid for building new hospitals, with trusts repaying them over 30 or more years, with interest.
Hospitals are currently paying out more than £2billion a year still as part of the deal.
HM Treasury data shows that the NHS is set to receive £151.8billion for 2022/23 and £157.4billion in the following year.
For comparison, the NHS was allocated £129.7billion during the first year of the pandemic, which was topped up with an extra £18billion to help with Covid pressures.
The NHS spends around £150billion-a-year, of which just under 43 per cent is spent on staff wages. Graphic shows: A pie chart of Department of Health and Social Care revenue spending on the NHS (left) in 2019/20 and areas where expenditure is seen to have been wasted (right)
HM Treasury data shows the NHS annual budget. In 2020/21, the NHS was given £129.7billion of core funding for its usual services, which was topped up with an extra £18billion to help with the pressures from the pandemic. For 2021/22 the Treasury said the health service received £136.1billion pounds of core funding, as well as £3billion to help with the Covid recovery. The health service has been allocated £151.8billion for 2022/23 and £157.4billion for 2023/34. The Autumn Statement topped up these figures by £3.3billion each
Joe Ventre, digital campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told MailOnline: ‘Taxpayers will be shocked at the number of empty buildings on the health service’s books.
‘These properties are sitting vacant and costing the NHS a pretty penny in business rates all at a time when waiting lists are filling up.’
He added: ‘Health bosses need to quickly sell these sites if they aren’t going to be brought back into use.’
An NHS Property Services spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘NHS Property Services owns and manages almost 3,000 healthcare buildings across England.
‘Just 77 of these are currently vacant having been declared surplus to requirements by local NHS commissioners.
‘Plans are in place for these sites with the majority to be sold and the proceeds reinvested, or brought back in to clinical use.’
They added: ‘Our team has a track record of securing best value for the NHS when sites are disposed, securing £115.6million over the past three years for reinvestment back in to NHS services.
‘Over the past three years we have reduced vacant space in our estate by 50,000 metres squared.
‘Whilst the properties are vacant, we consistently seek to minimise Business Rates through mitigation and exemption where appropriate, such as through empty rates relief.’
It comes as a damning report by the public spending watchdog in June also revealed the health service has more staff and money than ever before but is less efficient.
An investigation by the National Audit Office found patient satisfaction and access to urgent treatment is ‘worsening’, with long delays for ambulances and A&E.
It warned improving services will be a ‘significant challenge’, largely because delays discharging medically fit patients mean bed occupancy is too high.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
