HOSPITALS and health buildings across North Yorkshire are in need of repairs costing a staggering £23.1 million, it has been revealed.

Health Minister John Hutton said the figure is the bill just for bringing buildings up to a standard considered to be "physically sound, operationally safe and exhibiting only minor deterioration".

The Department of Health said the figures showed the need for huge investment in the county's hospitals, GP surgeries and clinics over the next decade.

The statistics for March 2000, the last year for which figures are available, were published in a written Parliamentary answer to Dr Evan Harris.

Dr Harris, the Liberal Democrats' shadow health secretary, said: "The large cost of putting these hospitals right is a direct result of under-investment in the NHS for decades.

"It is a clear indication that Conservative health policy allowed the decline of the NHS. These are the same Conservatives who are eager to point to failures in the NHS now.

"What the NHS needs is continued investment over many years and so Liberal Democrats will be pressing Labour for real delivery rather than the usual spin."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The whole health service infrastructure is suffering from decades of neglect and these figures show that.

"We are currently working to address this problem and carrying out the biggest hospital rebuilding programme in the history of the NHS.

"It ranges from small refurbishments through to building 70 new hospitals around the country.

"We are also putting money into refurbishing GPs services and other building such as clinics, which are the window of the health service.

"We recognise that rebuilding the infra-structure is just as important as modernising the health service itself."

He said the work which needed carrying out ranged from minor repairs through to opening entirely new buildings.

The spokesman said: "There will never be a point when no work needs doing across the whole NHS, because it is constantly in use.

"But we have a radical improvement programme to bring it up to date, and there will be big improvements over the next decade."

The total repairs backlog nationally in March 2000 was an enormous £3 billion.

Updated: 10:22 Saturday, November 24, 2001