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The Queen opening the £422 million UCLH last October |
PFI ‘too costly’ – UCLH chief
Hospital chairman urges the NHS to learn lessons from housing sector
THE chairman of one of the government’s flagship Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospitals has said the funding method is more costly than expected.
Peter Dixon, chairman of the £400-million University College London Hospital board of directors, has called on the hospital to consider other methods of investment where possible.
UCLH is bound by a 35-year PFI contract but Mr Dixon said hospital chiefs had no choice but to go along with the policy.
He said: “For the last eight years the only way to get a new hospital built has been to develop it under PFI. There are other ways of doing it and I think we need to develop the processes so we can do things better.”
In a report to the board, he said: “I think there is little doubt that the costs of PFI in the long-term are a matter of considerable concern to all those who have rather belatedly started waking up to what’s going on.”
Calling on the government to avoid using PFI and to look at the way affordable housing is provided as an example, he added: “We use it for schools, but I think there are other ways of doing it.
“In housing we don’t use PFI, it’s available but affordable housing is usually built by other routes and I think it’s worked more cheaply. That’s why I want the government to look at other ways of doing it.”
Mr Dixon said UCLH was not bound by PFI on its other sites, suggesting exploring alternative investment for any future build on the Odeon site on Grafton Way.
This could include granting loans similar to those taken out by housing associations.
Speaking at a Confederation of British Industry dinner last year, Mr Dixon explained how housing associations make use of loans, saying associations are “able to use those resources to procure the homes people need but they retain the ability to manage their assets actively without the potentially arthritic constraint of 35-year contracts.”
He said: “Being tied to 35-year contracts may not be helpful if we are looking at radically different ways of delivering healthcare in 10 years time.”
He added: “If we can find a plurality of ways of providing new assets it can only be a good thing rather than relying on PFI and its variants as the only option there is in town.” |
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