Lord John Hutton, former UK health minister and current chair of the Association of Infrastructure Investors in Public Private Partnerships (AIIP), comments on the government's 10 Year Health Plan to bring the NHS "closer to home".
Sirs,
With the NHS repair backlog now exceeding £14 billion, it is welcome that the plan commits to exploring new partnerships with the private sector to build new neigbourhood health centres.
Private investors stand ready to deliver on the Government’s ambitions.
Programmes like NHS LIFT which built 350 health centres in some of the most deprived communities offered clear long term benefits to the public and value for money according to the National Audit Office which has consistently found that PPPs were more likely to be built "on time and on budget".
It would be welcome to see those partnership plans extended to acute care, given the delays in plans to build 40 new hospitals, which private investment could accelerate to ensure things are built on time or on budget, with the private sector taking on the risk for delivering.
The NHS Confederation found that PFI projects offer better value for money than the traditionally procured New Hospitals Programme.
New hospital PPPs could provide additional services, wards or new medical equipment.
There is a huge opportunity to cut the thousands of clinical service incidents each year caused by infrastructure failings and give the public the NHS it deserves.”
Chair
The Association of Infrastructure Investors in Public Private Partnerships
