Leonard wants to ‘boot out’ PFI deals from NHS hospitals to end profit motive
Labour begins with Ninewells parking fees plan
Labour leader Richard Leonard wants to scrap PFI deals in Scottish hospitals as a priority, with a call for the agreements to be “booted out” of the NHS.
A new bill will be lodged at Holyrood by Labour aiming to stop parking charges at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital as part of a party shift to end the private finance deals in Scotland’s NHS.
Mr Leonard set out his plans during a keynote speech in Dundee yesterday, where he also pledged the “biggest programme of social and economic reform in the history of the Scottish Parliament” if he becomes first minister.
He acknowledged Labour was responsible for many of the older, more costly PFI deals in Scotland’s hospitals – including Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and in Dundee – when it was last in power.
But Mr Leonard said: “We need to start first of all by lookingatthosepfiprojects,which frankly are coming towards the end of their 25-year and 30-year lifespan and look at how we can end those with more immediate effect.
“Secondly, my priority is to look at the operation of PFI contracts in the NHS as a priority. I think that the exercise of the profit motive in the National Health Service is an anathema and I want to see that ended as quickly as possible.
“I’m not going to undertake to buy out to the full value all of those PFI deals because there are too many of them and the value of them is too great. It would stop us doing all the other things we want to do.
“But I think it was Nye Bevan who said the religion of socialism is the language of priorities, and I would invoke Nye Bevan to say one of the areas where I would want to see as a priority PFI booted out is in the National Health Service.
“We should be moving towards providing direct employment for people and the removal of the profit motive from those contracts right across the whole of the estate of the National Health Service.”
PFI deals involve private firms raising cash on markets and from finance houses to fund public projects like schools and hospitals. Councils and the NHS then effectively rent facilities over the lifespan of the deal, usually around 30 years. It means vital facilities can be built immediately, without waiting for public funds to become available.
In Scotland, the most expensive PFI scheme has been Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire. The capital cost was £293 million, but by the end of the 32-year contract the health board will have paid £1.8 billion. Edinburgh Royal Infirmary cost £180m to build, but NHS Lothian will have paid back £1.6bn by 2034.
Labour’s North-east MSP Jenny Marra is preparing a private members’ bill to end car parking charges at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.
She said: “The car park at Ninewells has made over £5m in profit over the last 20 years and we see that as a tax on health for Dundonians and for people across Tayside.”
The SNP government abolished car parking charges at many hospitals in Scotland in 2008, but they remain at the major royal infirmaries in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as Ninewells because these were built through PFI and the buy-out costs were ruled to be prohibitive.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was health secretary at the time, said it would cost “tens of millions” of pounds to buy out the deals, although this would have come down as the contracts reach the end of their lifespan.
Mr Leonard unveiled his plans during a keynote address at Abertay University. He also revealed Professor Christine Cooper would head up a new Tax and Investment Commission looking at how a “fair division” of the nation’s wealth could be achieved.
A shake-up of Scottish Water was also proposed, which would see it transformed into a “multi-utility” company that could also provide energy. The high pay of bosses at the publicly owned firm could also be culled, Mr Leonard hinted.
But SNP James Dornan MSP said: “This is desperate stuff from Labour. Incompetence and indecision have become the hallmarks of Richard Leonard’s leadership to date and he’s now making a pretty flimsy attempt at a relaunch.
“What’s welcome in this speech is the hint of an acknowledgement of Labour’s disastrous failings on PFI and their toxic legacy that has left taxpayers continuing to pay through the nose.”
scott.macnab@scotsman.com
“I think that the exercise of the profit motive in the National Health Service is an anathema and I want to see that ended as quickly as possible”