Unison has warned that health facilities built under Lift risks locking the NHS into inflexible long-term contracts.
The PPP that uses private finance to build and run surgeries, clinics and community hospitals had been expected to grow to a £1bn programme in terms of the capital value of projects built.
But it is now set to get even better as it takes more of the burden of new NHS building.
Unison said Lift created “inflexibility for the NHS” which it said was locked into long-term contracts to guarantee the private sector’s cash flow.
Lift, however, was flexible for the private sector because it allowed it to treat primary health care buildings as a property portfolio.
Meanwhile, Neil Bentley, director of public services for the Confederation of British Industry, takes issue in The Guardian with claims that PFI in the NHS is floundering and out of control.
He says PFI has delivered the biggest hospital building programme in the developed world, on time and to budget.
References: Financial Times 03/02/06 page 2, The Guardian 03/02/06 page 39 (Response)
