Sewage leaks reported at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust

File photo dated 18/01/23 of a general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward, as England's hospitals have been hit by hundreds of sewage leaks in the last year, records detailing patients slipping on water and ceiling tiles falling down have revealed.

There have been two reports of sewage leaks at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust in the last year.

Hospitals across England have afflicted by unsanitary flooding, with urine and "faecal matter" leaking into offices and onto wards.

The figures were provided by the South Tyneside and Sunderland Trust to the Liberal Democrats, who called the state of English hospitals a "national scandal".

Freedom of Information requests to NHS Trusts have revealed there have been 456 sewage leaks in England’s hospitals over the last year, across 55 NHS Trusts which provided responses.

The trust with the most leaks was Leeds Teaching Hospital, which reported 105, while there were a further 80 at North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals.

There were reports of water leaking onto X-ray machines, sewage leaks in cancer and maternity wards and numerous examples of sewage flowing into Accident and Emergency departments.

One staff member running a ward described the sewage situation as “embarrassing”, while others told how working among the smell of raw sewage made NHS staff "nauseous".

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: “This is a national scandal. Our country’s hospitals are falling apart after years of underinvestment and neglect. Patients should not be treated in these conditions and heroic nurses should not have the indignity of mopping up foul sewage.

“At every turn, our treasured NHS is crumbling, from hospital buildings to dangerous ambulance wait times.

“The Government needs to find urgent funds to fix hospitals overflowing with sewage. Patient and staff safety is a risk if ministers fail to act.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “While individual NHS organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates, we are investing record sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care – including £4.2 billion this year and £8.4 billion over the next two years.

“More widely, we have invested £3.7 billion for the first four years of the New Hospital Programme and remain committed to all schemes that have been announced as part of it.”