MPs slam private role in NHS trusts

Both trusts have racked up huge debts that require "unprecedented" levels of savings with "unknown consequences" for patients and the taxpayer, according to the public accounts committee.

There had been a "complete lack" of strategic oversight by the Department of Health in its decision, which has left the future of both hospitals hanging in the balance.

Peterborough MP and committee member Stewart Jackson said the PFI deal to build Peterborough City hospital had proved "catastrophic" with the ministry now coughing up almost £1 million a week to keep the trust afloat.

The committee said Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Trust has accumulated a deficit of £45.8m on a turnover of £208 million, a ratio of 22 per cent - the highest in the NHS.

Meanwhile Circle aims to achieve savings of £311m over the 10-year franchise contract at Hinchingbrooke hospital 24 miles away in Cambridgeshire.

But Circle had not achieved the savings it expected and now requires £26m a year for the next 30 years to remain afloat, the report said.

Health Emergency campaign warned that the debts saddled on both trusts are far more than the £10m deficit Mid Staffs found itself in at the end of 2006/7 when patient care was being severely jeopardised.

The committee also found management consultants were used at "great expense to little effect" with Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Trust spending £9m in the last two years.

Unison's head of health Christina McAnea said the report serves as a warning over the dangers of NHS franchising.

She said the sell-off of Hinchingbrooke was the "wrong cure for its problems" and warned many other trusts are saddled with the legacy of bad PFI deals that affect patients and services.

The ministry vowed not to "sweep these problems under the carpet."