LIFT eight times more expensive, MPs told

Primary care trusts are paying up to eight times as much per patient for GP surgeries built by local improvement finance trusts, a report from the Commons public accounts committee has found.

In Sandwell in the West Midlands, the average annual cost for premises per patient registered with GPs in LIFT premises was£31.41, but just£3.84 in other premises.

The report found that in Newham in east London, for example, although only 9 per cent of patients were registered with GPs operating from LIFT premises, those surgeries accounted for 28 per cent of the PCT's annual expenditure on accommodation.

The committee accepted that without LIFT schemes many new primary care buildings would not be built, especially in deprived areas. But it warned that the cost of new LIFT buildings could 'displace' other primary care spending, and it said PCTs should make the implications for spending on other services clear when proposing LIFT projects.

The report also recommended that although LIFTs have become cheaper, local targets for reducing the cost of future projects should be set. And it called on the Department of Health to speed up the introduction of a mechanism to evaluate LIFT projects' value for money.

Health minister Lord Warner said the DoH was looking at more rigorous methods of testing value, but he said that without LIFT many new premises would not exist.