Wrexham Maelor Hospital 'needs up to £60m' for urgent repairs

Urgent repairs costing £50m-£60m are needed at Wrexham Maelor Hospital to prevent significant disruption to patient care, health bosses say.

The ageing buildings had suffered problems with power, water, heating and medical gas supplies in recent years, the Betsi Cadwaladr board said.

In 2017, a leaking roof and ventilation failures led to an emergency closure affecting nearly 2,000 patients.

The Welsh Government will be asked to foot the bill.

The 2017 closure of the hospital's day surgery and endoscopy unit cost the board £1.6m in rental costs for alternative hospital space in England and the hiring of two mobile units.

Rod Taylor, the board's director of estates and facilities, said Wrexham Maelor was the hospital most in need of investment across north Wales.

"The overall poor condition of the site includes major engineering obsolescence, which is now resulting in frequent breakdowns," he said in a report.

"As time passes the likelihood of more, and more significant, failures will only increase without substantial investment."

The health board spends about £700,000 per year on maintaining the hospital.

Full modernisation would cost £284m, Mr Taylor added.

Health chiefs said the hospital was running at full capacity, with about 35,000 inpatients and 260,000 outpatients treated each year.

Board members unanimously agreed to approve the business case for submission to the Welsh Government, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.