End health care pfi

In 1940 hospitals paid no charge on their land, buildings or assets. If money was needed to rebuild or upgrade, it came out of capital costs from central government.

Put simply, our tax money paid for hospitals, which we, the public, then owned.

Since 1997 hospital buildings and assets have been constructed wholly or partly with private finance. So the new infirmary in Edinburgh, as well as many other hospitals both in England and Scotland, is built on land not owned by Lothian Health Trust, but by a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Upgrades or additions to existing hospitals were often also funded in this way.

Trusts then have to pay back the money “borrowed” to construct or upgrade new buildings. Hospitals are struggling to meet their PFI debts. For example, South London Healthcare Trust has recently been put into administration, unable to pay this debt.

Today, the NHS is paying £14.4 billion to private firms as repayments on their PFI debts. In some trusts the repayments account for one-fifth of their budgets.

This situation cannot continue. Hospital trusts should be financed with government money to upgrade or rebuild. We, the public, are paying these huge sums out of our taxes to private firms for no good reason to the point where it could almost be deemed a swindle.

This money, which is one reason why the NHS is struggling today, would be better spent on patient care.

Originally, PFI allowed new hospitals to be built when waiting would have meant poorer care, so it was good at the time, but it is not working now, it is not value for money, and should not be repeated.

We need to demand an end to PFIS, both in healthcare and education, which simply waste our money paying back huge amounts of interest on debts we didn’t need in the first place.

ANNE WIMBERLEY

Belmont Road, Edinburgh