02.11.12
Soaring costs of hospital PFI deal
A PFI hospital project whose projected costs have doubled to over £2bn has been criticised as “bonkers” and “a mess” by its local MP.
King’s Mill Hospital, part of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, should have cost £976m over the life of its 2005-2043 PFI deal, according to the BBC.
But an FoI request by BBC Radio Nottingham has shown projected costs as having risen to £2.05bn.
Conservative MP for Sherwood Mark Spencer told the BBC: “It is completely bonkers.
“We need to find out who signed the deal and who was going through the small print and what they were thinking of when they signed the deal. We have a new chairman and we have to get behind him and sort out the mess.”
Former trust chair Tracy Doucet stepped down in September after a letter came to light from Monitor about the “very serious issues” facing the loss-making trust because of its PFI payments.
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(Image of the hospital copyright Duncan Harris, used here under a Creative Commons licence, some rights reserved.)