A registration form and a stethoscope at the Temple Fortune Health Centre GP Practice near Golders Green, LondonA “PFI 2.0” will divert money away from patients and into shareholders’ pockets, campaigners warned today as the government announced plans to use private finance to fund new neighbourhood health centres.
The government has pledged to open 250 centres as part of an effort to shift outpatient care away from hospitals.
Officials say they will serve as “one-stop shops,” bringing together GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists under one roof.
Announcing the plans, Health Minister Karin Smyth warned that government funding “will only get us so far,” citing a £40 billion black hole in the NHS’s finances.
“We need to use every measure available to us, which is why we’re leveraging in private investment to construct some of these centres, making the most of all expertise and every tool at our disposal,” she said.
But campaigners have warned that the use of public-private partnerships could repeat the mistakes of disastrous PFI (private finance initiative) schemes, in which private firms financed the construction of hospitals, leaving taxpayers lumbered with high-interest repayments over the long term.
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