Banking on NHS profits

A REPORT from the public accounts committee says that Britain's biggest bank, HSBC, and its investors, have made around £100 million from NHS hospitals. HSBC's subsidiary infrastructure company, HICL, manages NHS hospitals where contractors charge taxpayers inflated bills for simple tasks.

Hospitals are charged £210 for an electrical socket, for example, and £200 to fit a computer socket. Since it was launched in March 2006, the HICL fund, based in Guernsey to save HSBC taxes, has acquired large stakes in 27 private finance initiative (PFI) schemes.

PFI schemes are already far more expensive than publicly funded schemes, having to allow for massive profits but these sub-contracted firms add millions to the NHS's costs. In 2006, £180 million was made by such contractors for expensive extras that a PFI hospital is contractually obliged to use.

The conclusion many people will come to is that the only banks that should be involved in the NHS are blood banks!