- Target:
- Secretary of State for Health
- Region:
- United Kingdom
- Website:
- www.keepournhspublic.com
The planned redevelopment of the Royal Liverpool Hospital through the use of a Private Finance Initiative has proved highly controversial. Public opinion is in favour of a new hospital, but there is no consensus in favour of PFI.
In fact, those who defend the use of PFI despite its higher cost, do so on the basis that "we need a new hospital and there is no alternative to PFI". We think that the consequences of spending hundreds of millions of pounds on unnecessary financing costs will do lasting damage to the local health economy and that alternatives to PFI are necessary and feasible, even more so since the onset of the credit crunch.
The alternative advocated in this petition is Public Finance.
Petition to rebuild the Royal Liverpool Hospital with Public Funds:
Use tax-payers’ money to fund NHS services not bankers’ profits.
We, the undersigned, register our protest that the government’s scheme to rebuild the Royal Liverpool Hospital will cost a total of £1.24 billion with about £500 million swallowed up in financing costs. We oppose NHS money being diverted from services for local patients, when using public funds directly to build and run this new hospital will only cost £730 million.
We are deeply concerned that healthcare in Liverpool and Merseyside will suffer as the NHS is forced to prioritise paying PFI debts before clinical care.
Liverpool needs a new hospital but that is no excuse to divert money needlessly from the NHS to bankers and private investors. Public projects must not waste taxpayers' money and they must be carried out in the most efficient way, with transparent public evidence before final decisions are taken.
We endorse the attempt by Sam Semoff of the Keep Our NHS Public campaign to challenge this massive diversion of funds away from the NHS into the banks. The Leader of Liverpool City Council has said this PFI project is not value for money and he is right. The government should think again before mortgaging the future of our local NHS.
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The Rebuild the Royal Liverpool Hospital with Public Funds petition to Secretary of State for Health was written by Greg Dropkin and is in the category Health at GoPetition.