8:10am Friday 27th August 2010
SIR – Hospitals have been saddled with so much debt under the Government’s private finance initiative (PFI) that they are being forced to cut back on patient care.
Conservative and Labour governments have said that they used PFI – in which the NHS leases new hospitals from private contractors – because it would generate “efficiency savings”.
Under the scheme, NHS trusts are locked into 30-year deals with the construction firms that manage and maintain hospitals they have supplied. The repayments are non-negotiable.
Researchers from the King’s Fund thinktank have found the total debt of this “NHS mortgage” now stands at £65 billion. The hospitals themselves were worth just £11.3 billion when first built.
Worcestershire’s NHS faces the prospect of a £60 million funding gap by 2013/14. Catalyst, the PFI company that built Worcestershire Royal Hospital at a cost of £82 million, will be paid £720 million by taxpayers.
Will the people of Worcester tolerate cuts in the NHS while private companies continue to accumulate huge profits? Will Robin Walker MP remain silent on this scandalous waste of public money?
ALECIA FYFFE
Worcester
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