Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/538/6169
From The Socialist newspaper, 17 June 2008
PFI - a very bad deal for the NHS
IF YOUR local shop had an offer, "one for the price of three", they would not get much trade. Yet that's the kind of deal offered to health trusts by Private Finance Initiative (PFI) consortia on building hospitals. If you include rent, fees and additional interest charges, the costs of PFI deals in Britain's hospitals can be two and sometimes three times as great as publicly financed agreements.
PFI firms build hospitals and lease them back over 30-60 year commercial contracts. In Scotland's first PFI hospital, Hairmyres in East Kilbride, for instance, construction firm Keir and finance firm Innisfree originally put in £8.4 million of 'their own money.'
Using Freedom of Information laws, two Scottish economists found that over 30 years they will recoup an estimated £145 million. That is double the cost of building the hospital through public finance through the National Loan Scheme, even though the contractors put their cash at very little risk.
With extra profits from operating and maintenance costs, the ratio may be as high as three to one. PFI is a very expensive way of transferring money from the health service to the bank accounts of building and financial capitalism. PFI must go.
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In The Socialist 17 June 2008:
No! to racism: Yes! to decent jobs, homes and public services
No! to racism: Yes! to decent jobs, homes and public services
Unite and fight against racism
Protest at BNP 'hate festival'
International socialist news and analysis
Lisbon Treaty 'No' vote delivers major shock for political and big business Establishment
Socialist Party campaigns
David Davis - sanity or carving a position?
Greater Manchester - save your post office
London protest over Rajapaksa's dismal human rights record
Stop big business polluting our environment
Education
Stop New Labour's divisive school academy plans
Socialist Party NHS campaign
NHS: Polyclinics - Stop this backdoor privatisation
PFI - a very bad deal for the NHS
Socialist Party campaigns
Unison conference: Angry delegates attack leaders
Post office closures
Leeds: Stop Beeston post office closures
Socialist Party workplace news
National Shop Stewards Network Conference
CWU's link with Labour hotly debated
Victory against bosses at Keele
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