GMB, the union for NHS workers, has commented on today’s NAO report into the collapse of Carillion.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said:
“The existing hospitals are no longer fit for purpose and are bursting at the seams.
“The failure to open new hospitals must be having impact on the health of the two communities.
“The delay in building the new hospitals - which will not be ready for opening until 2023 - means more and more scarce NHS resources are being used to maintain inefficient and dilapidated facilities instead being used to support patient care.
Carillion collapse: the dangers of outsourcing
“The lesson from these two cases must be that PFI is not a vehicle for the design, building and maintenance of hospitals. It is hugely expensive - much more so than other methods of funding – and leaves NHS Trusts with long term commitments to and fortunes to private companies.
“Neither does PFI reduce the financial risk to the public sector, as when projects collapse the NHS has to come to the rescue.
“PFI and the involvement of the private sector in our health service should be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
