The Government yesterday told the Commons it was unable to commit itself to halting plans by the West Hertfordshire Health Authority to build a new hospital using the Private Finance Initiative.
There are fears that five existing hospitals may have to close as a result of the plans, although local MPs said that was not yet clear.
Health Minister of State Alan Milburn said that, as the South West Hertfordshire Community Health Council may formally object to the plan, he might soon have to step in and therefore he could not comment.
However, he warned Labour’s Tony McWalter (Hemel Hempstead) that the Government was committed to PFI and that “no change is not an option” in the National Health Service generally.
McWalter told the minister during a short Commons debate of the depth of feeling about the plans, bringing two petitions signed by more than 70,000 people between them.
He said the WHHA “want to attack the five local hospitals, which they already have built, operating and functioning hospitals which at least in Hemel Hempstead and Watford have produced over 70,000 people in support of their retention”.
McWalter called them a “wonderful deposit of NHS resources” that was in danger of being “frittered away on the PFI-inspired philosophy of the health authority”.
He said it was “inappropriate for our current circumstance” and voiced the fear that public money would be spent but taxpayers would end up “publicly owning not a brick, not a single trowel of mortar”. Labour’s Clare Ward (Watford) also said that the WHHA had not consulted people properly on its plans.
Milburn told them Labour had made a manifesto commitment to “sort out the problems that have plagued PFI”. He said the Government would “only give the go-ahead to PFI proposals if they can demonstrate that they are affordable and that they offer value for money for taxpayers”.
The Minister added that “no clinical services” would be allowed to be included. He also said: “Should the matter be referred ministers will only uphold the Health Authority’s decision if we are satisfied that adequate alternative services are available.”
PLS News 19/11/98
