Comment

THE financing of the state-of-the-art Worcestershire Royal Hospital has been a "disaster", claims a leading county MP yesterday, following an admission by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt that "lessons must be learnt".

Under pressure from questions put by Wyre Forest's Independant MP, Richard Taylor, Ms Hewitt told a health select committee that early private finance initiatives (PFIs) such as the one used to built the Worcestershire Royal, had been "expensive" compared with more recent contracts.

It was earlier revealed that the new hospital has a retained capital value of £87m, but Worcestershire Acute Trust's repayments will be £942m.

An irate Mid-Worcestershire MP, Peter Luff, has always argued the contract for the hospital, opened in 2001, was rushed.

The Conservative MP said: "It really takes something to get this government to admit it made a mistake, so Patricia Hewitt's admission that the PFI introduced at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is a disaster is a real victory for common sense.

"If the government wants to take the credit for the hospital it must also take credit for the financial mess it's landed the county in as a result."

Dr Richard Taylor told the committee Worcestershire residents felt the contract for the Worcester-based hospital - which is £30m in debt - was initially negotiated "very quickly and amateurishly".

Replying to the grilling, Ms Hewitt said: "I cannot comment on the amateurish bit, but I think it is true that we have learned lessons with every PFI contract, whether in health or in some other part of the public sector. That may be difficult for the early PFIs.

"On the other hand, their staff and patients have had the benefit of a new hospital much earlier than those who are still waiting, as in Leicester."

Worcestershire Royal Hospital was one of the early PFI agreements signed, enabling private contractors to pay for the build in return for payments from the NHS over 25 years.

As a result Kidderminster General Hospital was downgraded and in teh resulting furore, former hospital consultant Dr Taylor was elected to parliament in 2001 as a public protest to the move.

However, Worcester MP Mike Foster, Labour, said: "Let's not forget Worcester had been on a promise for 40 years for a new hospital. That was in 1997 when we came into power, .

"The PFI was the route which we could take to get a new hospital more quickly. We didn't want to wait another 40 years to get what I think, we'd all agree, is a first-class facility."

Mr Foster said it was important lessons had been learned about the PFI process.

"That doesn't mean that PFI is wrong and that a mistake was made," he said.

"At the end of the 25-year contract the PFI partners will have to hand over to the health service a hospital in the exact same condition as they found it."

John Rostill, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: " We agree that lessons have been learned with every PFI contract and that earlier PFI builds like Worcestershire Royal Hospital do face difficulties around the financing of the scheme. We are pleased that this issue has been recognised."

9:36am Friday 1st December 2006

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login