Scots PFI escape

Anne Wimberley correctly condemns the use of PFI for building hospitals with its resulting legacy of debt for future generations (Letters, August 7).

This policy, introduced by Gordon Brown and enthusiastically pursued by the Scottish Labour Party when in power, resulted in outrageous profligacy, such as the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh costing £160 million to build but which, with interest, will have cost well over a billion pounds by the time due payment is complete (some time in the 2040s).

Incredibly, even then, the building will not belong to the Scottish NHS but to a consortium of banks who put up the money.

Fortunately the SNP, in one of their very first acts on taking power, stopped all new PFI funded projects in Scotland and such projects are now funded by the “Not for Profit” system, which costs less than half to finance and which ends with the SNHS owning the building.

I believe the PFI system is still in use in England by their NHS and contributes greatly to their current troubles.

JAMES DUNCAN

Rattray Grove, Edinburgh