Up to 6 P3 hospitals "not viable under any scenario"

With public sector austerity in Britain, the National Audit Office has reported 20 hospitals "are not financially or clinically viable in their current form."

The report also indicates that British Department of Health advisers have found that up to 6 of the 22 hospitals with public private partnerships (P3s) "were not viable under any of the tested scenarios" because of the scale of their P3 (or as the British refer to them "PFI") payments and other financial problems.

The Audit Office reports that "tackling the financial problems faced by some of the most challenged (hospital) trusts will require direct intervention" by the government, including "addressing the affordability of PFI schemes." The Audit Office notes that the Department of Health now "acknowledges that external financial support may be needed for a small number of trusts with large PFI schemes."

Conservative Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, commented: “This report exposes the dismal legacy of challenged hospitals we inherited from the Labour Government. Labour burdened some of our hospitals with PFI deals they cannot afford, allowed years of bailouts to snowball into huge debts, and turned a blind eye to poor performance and quality."

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