'Hit squads' to take over seven NHS trusts

[dipsydoodle]

Senior government lawyers and auditors are to be sent into seven NHS hospital trusts on the brink of bankruptcy which have been saddled with “absolutely disgraceful” private finance initiative contracts.

Simon Burns, the health minister, said that he will be sending in “hit squads” to make savings at hospitals where the contracts have gone “horribly wrong”.

He says that the deals show a “cavalier disregard” for taxpayers’ money and points out that hospitals are being forced to pay £242 for a padlock to be changed and £466 for a new light fitting.

Throughout the NHS, hospitals have signed PFI deals worth more than £79 billion, of which only eight per cent had been repaid by 2010. The deals involved private firms building and maintaining hospitals, with the money repaid over decades.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9502335/Hit-squads-to-take-over-seven-NHS-trusts.html

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Brits seem to achieve Culpability better than US n/t

[2on2u]

2. Hey, those are military grade padlocks and light fittings.... therefore the prices are just

right and maybe a bit low.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Its a scam

I recall a similar situation back in the early seventies with our old BOAC. A lamp cover which was thought to have fallen off an airliner was found on the Heathrow perimeter road. Those covers or use on planes were c. £1000 then. Turned out it had fallen off a Ford Transit van and the 100% identical cover was available for somewhat less from the local Ford dealership parts dept.

[HereSince1628]

4. Of course corps rob government...without such things government would be efficient

If government was efficient then the cowboy capitalists couldn't demand privatization to fix governments which are ALWAYS inefficient.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Yes, everyone knows that contracting out hospital services to companies that have no interest in

health and just want to make a profit is soooo much more efficient than government-provided services

We have seen the future and it doesn't work.

For non-Brits: This skullduggery was on the system introduced by the Major government and continued by New Labour, where actual healthcare was not privatized but hospital support and maintenance services often were. Now the present government wants to increase the role of private contractors in the health service. Expect things to get a lot worse!