New PFI deal would pile extra burden on the NHS

According to the Telegraph, the private healthcare sector is prepared to spend £1 billion on expanding their facilities. In exchange, the government would guarantee them access to NHS contracts and budgets for the long term.

This deal, if approved, would see billions more of NHS money that should be used to treat more patients, going toward private shareholder profits.

It would also undermine the NHS's access to staff. The private sector does not have its own staff, they steal staff from the NHS. This means that the private sector being paid by the government to expand its capacity would result in more NHS staff being leeched to work in the private sector. 

Why this deal = PFI

Here are three ways in which this proposed deal being considered by Wes Streeting has the same basic structure as PFI. In both cases:

1. The proposal involves the idea that healthcare capacity can be expanded without government spending
2. Spending will come from the private (healthcare or finance) sector, and
3. In exchange, the private sector will be guaranteed returns through long-term (debt repayment or health services) contracts giving them access to NHS money

Our NHS is still being crippled by Blair's PFI

New We Own It research has just revealed that PFI deals signed by Tony Blair's government are still crippling the NHS, undercutting its efforts to fix up hospitals and treat more patients. This shows that if Wes Streeting approves more PFI, he would be piling misery upon misery for the NHS.

Our new research, which analysed the latest available data on PFI and the NHS’s repairs backlog, found that:

• NHS trusts with current PFI debt have already paid back 360% of the initial capital invested into the average PFI project.
• 79 out of the 82 NHS trusts with current PFI debt have already paid off the initial capital investment. Of the 79 trusts that have already paid off the capital amount, 64 (or 81%) could clear the entire trust’s repairs backlog with the amount they still owe to PFI companies
• Although a huge majority of trusts with PFI debts have already cleared the initial capital amounts, they still owe £590 million on average or £47.8 billion across all 82 PFI-laden trusts

Conclusion

NHS trusts cannot afford to fix their crumbling hospitals because they are still paying out huge chunks of their budgets to PFI companies.

Our NHS is still suffering from the last PFI ventures, why would Wes Streeting sign our NHS up for new ones? Take action and demand that he drop all new PFI plans.