News / Seven trusts stand to get PFI support

Up to seven trusts responsible for private finance initiatives (PFIs) may be given financial support to ensure they remain viable, health secretary Andrew Lansley said.

A Department of Health review has determined that the trusts may need the support and is examining each case against four criteria – including whether their problems are exceptional and whether there is a clear plan in place to manage their resources in the future.

The trusts are Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Dartford and Gravesham; Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells; North Cumbria University Hospitals; Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; South London Healthcare; and St Helens and Knowsley.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been chosen as the preferred bidder to acquire the North Cumbria trust, which is seeking a partner as it is too small to remain financially viable. ?

Mr Lansley said up to £1.5bn in total would be available over 25 years and some of the money would be allocated in 2012/13. ?‘We need to balance the accountability of the NHS at local level to live within its means on the one hand, while recognising that there is a legacy of debt for some trusts with PFI schemes,’ he said.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust finance director David Wragg said it would be premature to make assumptions about how much the trust will receive. ??

‘It is important to remember that we have long-standing and substantial financial challenges, aside from our excess PFI costs, and this funding does not exempt us from the need to make further progress in improving our productivity,’ he added.