When Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced an investment of £3.1 billion to build 29 new hospitals a fortnight ago the Labour heartlands must have jumped with joy. At last their hard-earned taxes and the impossibly large government surplus were going into a decent programme of NHS renewal. Tangible fruits of the Prime Minister's 'accidental' Breakfast With Frost commitment to raise health spending to EU levels were at last being seen, were they not?
Surprisingly perhaps, the money will come not from the Treasury's overflowing coffers, but from groups of private sector construction companies. These consortiums will be repaid by a government commitment made on behalf of future generations of taxpayers, to lease back the hospital's service for the next 30 years. This gigantic hire-purchase agreement for the long-term future of public health is the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
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