In June the New Statesman magazine published a study of hospitals funded through Private Finance Initiative between 1997 and 2018, and headlined the fact that some have been spending more on PFI annual payments than they spend on clinical supplies.
Tucked away in a table at the end was a list of Trusts with PFI contracts, beginning with those paying 10% and more of their income on their PFI “unitary charge” covering the cost of the building, support services, and interest in 2019.
Top of the list was Sherwood Forest Hospitals FT, forking out a painful 13% of income, followed by St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. North West Anglia (Peterborough and Hinchingbrooke hospitals) and Great Western Hospitals (Swindon) are each on 11%, with Dartford and Gravesham, Portsmouth, Barking Havering and Redbridge and Dudley Group on 10%.
Also on 10% was the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, built in 2001, which will not make its final payment until 2037. The trust paid £66m unitary charge in 2019 – equivalent to 10 percent of the Trust’s income.
Full story in The Lowdown, 29 October 2022
