View PCTs in Trouble in a larger map
South London Hospital Trust has been effectively declared bust, and the Department of Health has laid the blame at the feet of the “unaffordable” private finance initiatives started by Major’s Conservative government but massively expanded by New Labour.
Once the last scheme Labour started is fully paid off, in 2049, more than £70bn will have been paid back. For the NHS as a whole, the repayments are relatively low – just £1-2bn a year from an annual budget of £100+bn. But for some individual trusts, they can reach 10 to 20 per cent of their entire annual turnover.
Now that the Department of Health seems to have moved to a policy of not bailing out these hospitals, they are all at risk of following South London Heathcare.
In September last year, the Department released a list of the 22 trusts “on the brink of financial collapse” because of PFI deals they can’t afford:
St Helens and Knowsley
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University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire
Wye Valley
Barking, Havering and Redbridge
Worcester
Oxford Radcliffe/Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre
Barts and the London
University Hospitals of North Staffordshire
Dartford and Gravesham
North Cumbria
Portsmouth
Buckinghamshire
West Middlesex
Mid Yorkshire
Walsall
North Middlesex
Mid Essex
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells
Sandwell and West Birmingham (not fully signed off as of September 2011)
The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (not fully signed off as of September 2011)
The 22nd trust on the Department’s list, North Bristol NHS Trust, has repeatedly expressed puzzlement about their inclusion. A spokesman assured me that their PFI deals are financially sound, and that repayments account for 8 per cent of their budget. They are represented in a different colour on the map to highlight the disagreement.
Additional research by Helen Robb. Updated 14:50 to acknowledge North Bristol NHS Trust’s objections.
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