Extra cash for private hospital

An extra £30million which could have funded patient care has been paid to a private firm to foot the bill for Dudley’s new Russells Hall Hospital.

Health bosses today admitted they have had to shell out the cash from central NHS coffers - on top of the £160million spent on the brand new hospital, built by McAlpine. And an additional £700,000 will be drained from hospital funds to meet “ongoing maintenance” for each of the 34 years remaining on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract.

This is on top an the existing annual payment of £30million.

The huge settlement covers extra buildings and equipment requested by the NHS after the original deal in 2001, as well as a series of delays to initial timescales.

It will come as massive embarrassment to health ministers and cast fresh doubt over the Government’s controversial PFI scheme.

Borough Councillor Ken Turner, who sits on Dudley Council’s Good Health Committee, said he was “staggered” by the revelation.

“This is coming direct from the NHS pot and will deprive patients of vital care, simply to cover the bungling bureaucrats who have mishandled the building of this hospital,” he said.

“It is going to make it very clear throughout the country that PFI needs to be looked at seriously again.

Dispute

“If this had happened to most private companies they would be insolvent by now. I trust none of the developers involved will be receiving any peerages.”

The deal follows more than a year of legal wrangling between health bosses and Summit Healthcare, a subsidiary of McAlpine, and has been made to head off potentially more costly court action.

Dudley Group of Hospitals Chief Executive Paul Farenden said: “This agreement finally draws to a close this or any future dispute relating to the cost of building our three hospitals, and the installation of state-of-the-art medical and diagnostic equipment. Russells Hall, the Guest and Corbett Hospitals are some of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the country.”