Hospital Bankruptcies, “Ghastly” Profits, Kingston Residents Told
Kingston, Ontario – In a briefing hosted by the Health Coalition, Dr. John Lister a U.K. expert on P3s, recounted the shocking story of excessive profits, massive public debt and hospital insolvency as a result of the P3 program in the U.K.
The Health Coalition, which is holding a plebiscite (a referendum called by the citizens) on Saturday, April 13 to give an opportunity to Kingston residents to vote as to whether or not they want to allow the P3 privatization of their new psychiatric and rehabilitation hospital, warned that the British P3 disaster should serve as a wake-up call for Ontario’s politicians who generally have little knowledge about these schemes to which they have committed billions of Ontario residents’ dollars.
In a video briefing live from the U.K., Dr. John Lister cited a litany of problems in the British P3s.
“Private finance seemed like the solution to everything but it turned out to be a nightmare for the public and for those in the communities of the P3 hospital, who are left paying the consequences,” said Dr. John Lister, from Coventry University. “And this is for a generation to come, we have decades more of this to come.”
Key Facts and Quotes from the U.K.:
- “The current model of PFI [P3] is unsustainable. Thirty year contracts are inflexible and don’t allow managers to alter priorities or change services that have become outdated. We have seen evidence of excess profits being priced into projects from the start.” Margaret Hodge, MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee of the British Legislature.
- Some English hospitals are using up to 1/5 of their budgets servicing the debt costs to the P3 consortia, according to the Daily Telegraph.
- “I regret that contracts were signed that paid private sector costs when the public took the risk. That is indefensible.” Stephen Dorrell, Chair of the Health Select Committee of the Department of Health, U.K.
For more information: Ross Sutherland 613-532-7846; Natalie Mehra 416-230-6402
