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letter Merseyside Keep Our NHS Public is calling a lobby of the Liverpool City Council meeting on Wednesday 26th March at the Town Hall (Dale Street / Castle Street). Councillor John Coyne will be proposing a resolution against the new Royal Hospital being built under PFI and we will be leafletting all the councillors who attend in support of this. The lobby is from 4.30pm onwards - people who finish work later are encouraged to come down when they can to join us either inside or outside. Best wishes Danny Bed Cuts and PFIThe Royal Hospital redevelopment plan trumpeted yesterday means bed cuts and privatisation. PFI means paying private companies to build, own and profit from the hospital. The cuts are based on an unproven strategy to reduce demand by promoting community services. It sounds nice but no-one actually knows if it will work or even have enough community staff to succeed. The Daily Post quotes Liverpool PCT’s Dr Rihani stating “We don’t believe we need more than 650 beds“. What if he’s wrong? New medicines must be proven effective before they are prescribed by the NHS, but the Royal will cut 200 beds without any published evidence that they will not be needed in 2012. PFI is notorious. The government’s Public Accounts Committee discovered last November that public sector PFI projects will cost the taxpayer over £170 billion by 2032. Large PFI hospital projects cause a debt crisis once they start operating, leading to further cuts in clinical provision, as Edinburgh researchers discovered. Many NHS Trusts are wallowing in debt directly caused by PFI, from Coventry to Worcestershire, South East London and Manchester. The Royal PFI debt will run for decades, even if the building is replaced again! Why should we be the next PFI casualty? Danny McGowan, Secretary Resolutions65. SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS BY COUNCILLOR JOHN COYNE That Standing Order 16. 2 be suspended to enable the following motion to be considered at this meeting of the City Council. Reason for request – because of the importance of the issues for the citizens of Liverpool. 66. ROYAL LIVERPOOL AND BROADGREEN HOSPITALS BY COUNCILLOR JOHN COYNE Council notes that: - last November, the Government’s Public Accounts Committee discovered that public sector PFI projects across Britain will cost taxpayers £170bn by 2032 (or £91bn according to revised Treasury figures). many large PFI hospital building projects have landed NHS Trusts with massive debts, forcing cuts in service provision. PFI hospital building programmes with capital value in excess of £50m incur an average annual capital cost of 10. 2% of Trust income, but NHS trusts are limited to spending 5. 8% of income on capital costs, resulting in an average annual shortfall of 4. 4%. Council further notes that current plans to redevelop the Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen hospitals: - involve capital expenditure in excess of £340m; are likely to be provided through PFI; involve planned cuts in beds and services, even before any future debt crisis which may be incurred by PFI; are based on an as yet unproven “Out of Hospital” strategy which may not provide sufficient reduction in demand for hospital services to justify the currently planned cuts. Council therefore requests the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to: - a) review the consequences of PFI funding for hospital building projects; b) review the consequences of the currently planned cuts in hospital beds and services at the Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen hospitals; and c) report their findings to Council. (If Standing Orders are not suspended the motion will be referred to the Executive Member for Health and Adult Services for consideration and response) |