Hospital money fears

call for the NHS’ said the joint health scrutiny committee (JHSC) of Kirklees and Calderdale councillors needed to be stronger.

She said it had always been clear that the full business case was expected to show detailed funding proposals.

She said: “Throughout the consultation when people asked about the capital costs of the hospitals reconfiguration and where the money was coming from, we were told repeatedly that this would be sorted in the full business case.

“The JHSC can’t pretend that they didn’t know this was going to be the case.

“They should insist that hospital trust publishes the full business case in public, with financial information redacted if the trust can show that it is indeed commercially sensitive.

“Councillors should get to see the whole thing, with no redactions.”

She added: “For the hospital trust to say the information about the capital costs is “commercially sensitive” can only mean that they are going to try and raise the money on the market either by commercial loan or by PFI2.”

Former Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney also claimed the secrecy meant a “Wonga” loan was planned.

Writing on Twitter, he said: “Really clear now the CCG can’t make their business case stack up and most likely will ask for another Wonga PFI deal – madness!”