Private Finance Initiatives
Trusts eye capital gains from surplus NHS land sales
NHS organisations plan to place surplus land equivalent to 350 Trafalgar Squares on the market for housing development in the next few years, latest figures from the Department of Health reveal.
Trusts needing bailout support almost double in 2011-12
Thirty-one trusts received bailout payments in 2011-12, information released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act reveals.
Health board seeks legal advice over torchlit surgery
A health board is taking legal advice after a surgeon had to finish an operation by torchlight when maintenance workers switched off the power.
£1.1bn Barts merger gets Lansley sign-off
The health secretary has approved the merger of three London hospital trusts to create an organisation with an estimated turnover of £1.1bn.
North Cumbria takeover bidder estimated it would need £78m over two years
FINANCE: The preferred bidder to take over North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust has estimated it needs the government to pump £78m of financial support into the troubled trust over the next two years.
FT faces 'absolutely enormous' £56m loss
A foundation trust with a turnover of just over £200m a year expects to make a loss this year of more than £56m.
Unique hybrid finance model planned for trust's PFI
A foundation trust is in talks about combining a “bullet payment” from the Department of Health with its own surplus and charity funds to make a private finance initiative rebuild more affordable.
Council plans £100m loan to buy out foundation's PFI contracts
A local authority is in negotiations to lend up to £100m to a foundation trust seeking to buy out its private finance initiative contracts, HSJ has learned.
Exclusive: Most troubled trust could be allowed to go bankrupt
The most financially troubled hospital trust in England could effectively be allowed go bankrupt and see its work redistributed between the independent sector and other trusts.
Government estimates central bail-out of seven trusts will cost £1.5bn
The government has estimated that bailing out hospital trusts with large PFI repayments could cost £1.5bn.
LIFT companies seek NHS Property Services links
Companies set up under a public-private partnership scheme are positioning themselves to become key partners to NHS Property Services, the firm formed to manage health service assets.
Exclusive: trusts given days to apply for £300m capital fund
The Department of Health has confirmed the existence of a surprise £300m fund for capital projects that some trusts had seven working days to apply for - and others have still not been told about.
Revealed: the six trusts that need DH support with their PFI
Six hospital trusts have been identified as needing Department of Health cash support with their private finance initiative payments in order to make foundation trust status, HSJ can reveal.
Osborne outlines PFI reassessment plans
Chancellor George Osborne today announced a “fundamental reassessment” of the government’s controversial private finance initiative, with the aim of cutting costs and improving transparency.
Lansley sets out 'four tests' for hospital bailout and threatens to sack boards
Andrew Lansley has said trusts who want loans as they try to achieve foundation status will have to pass four tests.
Bristol trusts discuss £1bn merger
Two acute trusts in Bristol are in “ongoing discussions” about merging to create an organisation with a turnover close to £1bn.
More on PFI
Could an NHS trust be allowed to go bankrupt?
Hospitals in the wrong place at the wrong time are in danger.
Sally Gainsbury: PFI bailouts are a sign of things to come
Those who are worried that the current top-down reconfiguration of the NHS will be the last of its kind received some good cheer last week, when the seven lucky recipients of its £1.5bn private finance initiative bailout scheme were announced.
All eyes on London's billion-pound merger after SHA sign off
By the time you read this, NHS London will almost certainly have signed off the Barts/Whipps Cross/Newham merger.
Review of London trusts reveals fears for safety
By now everyone in London’s heard of the SaFE review. NHS London commissioned consultants McKinsey to put together the Safe and Financially Effective paper and it has sat on desks for a few weeks at Southside. It’s explosive.
PFI spy: how to make the most of private finance initiatives
The situation for trusts paying for PFI projects is not all doom and gloom. There are still ways to find savings, says Vincent King.
The system needs fixing if we're to find the financiers
The NHS’s flawed payments system must be mended and evolved into something more robust and attractive in order to secure the as-yet-undecided new financiers, warn James Barlow, Colin Gray and Steve Wright.
