Southampton's main health provider is facing a massive repair bill that outstrips its annual running costs.
Sites owned by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust cost £128m to maintain in the year to March - but they need work costing £160m.
New figures show that Southampton General Hospital requires more than £140m in maintenance and repairs, including about £9.5m to tackle "high risk" defects.
The Trust has confirmed that disruption caused by "aged and out-of-date buildings" is having an adverse impact on patients and staff.
Nationally, the cost to eradicate the backlog of NHS repairs stands at £13.8bn, up 19 per cent from £11.6bn the previous year.
The figures have been released by the NHS Estates Return Information Collection.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund health think tank, said: "While this data is provisional, it is already indicating a substantial leap in the cost and severity of maintenance issues.
"Such a sizeable backlog will be a significant obstacle to the NHS increasing productivity and delivering more value for taxpayers and better quality care for patients.
"But most worryingly it also poses an increasing safety risk to staff and patients."
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Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, added: "Vital bits of the NHS are literally falling apart after years of under investment nationally. The safety of patients and staff is at risk.
"Eye-watering sums are needed just to patch up buildings and equipment which are in a very bad way."
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust provides services to 1.9m people and has an annual turnover of more than £1bn.
Its estate comprises Southampton General Hospital, Southampton Children's Hospital and the Princess Anne Hospital.
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David Jones, director of estates, facilities and capital development, said: "Whilst we continue to invest in new estate and facilities, including our recently opened [operating] theatres and state-of-the-art MRI facilities, many of our buildings are unfortunately aged and in some cases out-of-date.
"As a result we have to regularly manage, disruption, and infrastructure issues which can sometimes sadly have an impact on patients and our staff.
"Our focus is on using our available resources to prioritise safety, service continuity, and patient experience and outcomes. We are also working closely with NHS Estates and NHS England to advocate for increased funding."
The Trust has not said which buildings are affected or what work needs doing.
A Whitehall spokesperson said: "This government inherited a broken NHS – and to fix it, we recognise the importance of strategic, value-for-money capital investments.
"The upcoming Budget will begin delivering on the promise of change, including for the NHS."
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