HOSPITAL closures across the country were threatened yesterday, after it was revealed that PFI hospital buildings costing a total of £11.4 billion will cost the taxpayer more than £70 billion by 2049 as they are paid off.
The Tory coalition says the ‘sustainability’ of at least 22 NHS trusts – covering 60 hospitals and 12 million patients – is in doubt, with Tory Health Secretary Lansley saying ‘we’ve got an enormous legacy of debt’ and promising ‘tough solutions’.
Department of Health figures show annual bills for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) will rise by 75 per cent to more than £2.5 billion a year in the next 18 years.
Unison, the biggest health workers union, called for government intervention to aid hospital trusts.
‘It’s a bit rich for Andrew Lansley to complain about the cost of PFI, when it was the Tories who pioneered its use in the NHS,’ said Unison general secretary Dave Prentis.
‘And, against all the evidence,’ he added, ‘they are still ploughing ahead with major new projects regardless of the cost to the taxpayer.’
Britain’s biggest trade union Unite demanded that the government ‘renegotiate these disastrous contracts and ensure the PFI is put in the dustbin of history’.
The GMB union called for the PFI deals to be unwound and the cost to be taken out of the NHS ‘as they have nothing to do with looking after people’.
PFI deals are linked to inflation, but NHS funding is not, while companies running PFI schemes boast profit margins of up to 71 per cent as they collect interest from the taxpayer.
The threat is to use the PFI funding crisis to shut hospitals.
Health Secretary Lansley will announce a list of the hospitals ‘in difficulty’ next month, saying that some hospitals have PFI buildings ‘they simply cannot afford’.
A Unite spokesman said: ‘Unite has always argued that PFI is the wrong way to build a hospital.
‘It’s the equivalent of building a hospital using your credit card and the government should act now to renegotiate these disastrous contracts and ensure that PFI is put in the dustbin of history.
‘Unite is extremely concerned with the Tories’ handling of the NHS.
‘It’s been a disaster since day one. Waiting lists are up, services are going, bureaucracy has mushroomed.
‘The Tories have proved that they are toxic when it comes to the NHS.’
Rehana Azam, GMB national officer for the NHS, said: ‘GMB are one of the organisations that can justly say “we told you so’’.
‘At the time, we said that paying for these much-needed buildings for the NHS with the PFI was the equivalent of buying a car with a credit card.
‘It was frankly and utterly stupid and shouldn’t have happened.’
Unison said it was ‘highly critical of the use of PFI right from the start, warning of the long-term costly impact on taxpayers and patients.
‘Report after report from the union showed rising costs, poor workmanship and private companies making millions out of re-financing deals.
‘Many PFI investors are registered offshore for tax purposes. They make huge profits and avoid paying taxes.’
Unison leader Dave Prentis added: ‘We said loud and clear that hospitals are shedding staff and postponing operations because they are struggling to pay off their PFI debt.
‘Instead of shedding crocodile tears over the looming hospital crisis, the government should be stepping in to help.
‘Instead they are piling on the misery by demanding £20 billion from Trusts in so-called efficiency savings.’
