https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-and-nhs-boss-rewriting-history-on-disastrous-pfi

BACKING private finance in the NHS should be a red line for any health secretary, campaigners charged today.

NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week that the government should “consider” using private capital to fix the NHS’s crumbling infrastructure.

Today, Health Secretary Wes Streeting faced questions on the same programme about a potential return to failed private-finance initiative (PFI) schemes, in which private firms built hospitals and high-interest repayments were made over the long term.

Mr Streeting said that he does not pretend there are not “enormous challenges” because of NHS capital shortfall, and is “very sympathetic to the argument that we should try and leverage in private finance.”

But he admitted that many of the PFI deals “did lumber the NHS with an enormous cost that it continues to bear.”

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Johnbosco Nwogbo, of campaign group We Own It, said: “Support for more private finance in our NHS should disqualify you from being health secretary.

“Many NHS trusts are still spending more on PFI debts than on medicines for patients.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-and-nhs-boss-rewriting-history-on-disastrous-pfi