Labour was told about the likely failure of NHS PFI schemes even before they were signed up to and completely ignored the warnings…..something you might think would peek the BBC’s interest considering that the PFI agreements are now bringing the NHS to its knees in many hospitals.
Apparently not.
Good job we still have other sources of news to rely on:
Don’t sign, hospitals warned before PFI deal
‘An NHS hospital trust was officially warned not to sign the £500 million PFI deal that left it on the brink of bankruptcy, an independent report discloses.
Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust should never have agreed a deal to obtain funding from private companies in 2007, it says.
Monitor, the hospital regulator, warned that there was “significant doubt” that the deal was affordable before the former Labour government approved the private funding. The trust, which runs two hospitals, is now saddled with huge interest payments.
The regulator raised its concerns in January 2007, copying in the Department of Health under Andy Burnham, now the shadow health secretary.
“We believe the long-term affordability of the proposal to be in significant doubt,” it said at the time.
It reiterated this view in even stronger terms in April of the same year, when it raised “significant concerns as to the scheme’s affordability”.
But the deal was signed in June 2007 and the trust’s finances went downhill.’
I am willing to bet there are VERY close ties to many of these PFI deals and Labour members/aides/family/business partners. I do hope some able journalist is on the case.
My automatic reaction to stuff like this is: what if it had been the Tories who had cocked up as the previous government, and it was Labour who were having to sort it out?
Your trusty BBC commentator would almost certainly have summarised thus:
“Of course, these commitments were made under the previous Tory government who, some say, used PFIs to mask the true extent of public borrowing, leaving Ed Miliband and his chancellor in the difficult position of having to find a way out of the mess. Not an easy task when, as the outgoing Tory Treasury spokesman said after they left government: ‘There is no money left’ “.
Alan, sorry to be pedantic, but I think you intended to use the word is ‘pique’ not ‘peek’. I tried to find an email add. to impart but wasn’t sure what to do. Notwithstanding this, I love your postings. Please keep up the good work.
I’ll second that – he’s done a grand job during David’s absence.
These ‘other sources of news’ appear to be opt-in and free.
Adopting a BBC favoured tack, ‘figures would suggest’ that, in contrast, being compelled to pay no matter what for one’s ‘news’ means it is utterly untrustworthy and not worth the Byfordesque pension commitments or minority-spun social engineering the mandated funding is primarily designed to support.