Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to France McKie for presenting me with this opportunity.

From Every Doctor, the above and:

The NHS is haemorrhaging billions to private companies through Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts at a time when the health service desperately needs investment in staff and infrastructure. An EveryDoctor investigation has uncovered that 69 NHS trusts in England are locked into paying more than £21.1bn to private companies over the next two decades – money that could be spent on doctors, healthcare staff, patients, and critical repairs. The total spent on PFI debt and interest payments (£3.1bn) would have been more than enough to pay for all the most urgent repairs required to NHS buildings. The total cost to eradicate the high risk maintenance backlog in the NHS, in England alone, reached £2.7bn last year.¹

What about the Scottish health boards? I hear they’ve have ‘unprecedented‘ debt.

NHS Scotland loans are provided by the Scottish Government not private ‘selachimorph‘ loan companies, as in NHS England, and the annual payments are:

So, all things being equal, you’d expect the NHS England annual cost to be tens times higher than the £126.4m, £1.26bn, but is – £3.1bn, more than TWICE as much.

Also important, the Scottish Government would not bankrupt one of its own health boards but BIIF might.

Sources:

1. https://everydoctor.org.uk/nhs-trusts-to-pay-private-companies-over-21bn/?link_id=1&can_id=27239d0dde9ed8c344fcb6294537b4a2&source=email-shocking-new-nhs-findings-plus-a-treat-for-you&email_referrer=email_2968667&email_subject=shocking-new-nhs-findings-plus-a-treat-for-you
2. https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1986471849170247964