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Top e-government news, updated daily, and regular features from the top people in the public sector.
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| £300m PFI superhospital |
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Plans for a £300m Scottish hospital were unveiled yesterday, paving the way for the biggest private finance project of its kind in the country.
The new hospital, which will replace Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries, will consist of a village of buildings and will house 800 beds.
Managers hope as well as serving the surrounding Forth Valley community, the site in Larbert will attract NHS services that cater for the population of Scotland because of its central location.
This could mean patients from Glasgow and Edinburgh will travel there for treatment.
After details of the new hospital were published, anger erupted about the move to use private finance and the decision to hire a private firm to provide catering, cleaning, porters and other domestic services on site.
And the former general secretary of the STUC defended his involvement in the decision to create the new privately-financed hospital.
Campbell Christie confirmed he had felt he had to support the overall contract, but said of the privatised contract for cleaning and catering: "I am extremely disappointed that the in-house team's bid for 'soft' facilities management was not successful but at least the STUC protocols held."
But Ian Mullen, chairman of NHS Forth Valley, said: "We carried out a very detailed evaluation and there was quite a significant difference in terms of both the qualitative and quantative assessment.
"The in-house bid was going to be more expensive and was not going to provide innovative and quality services."
He added that a protocol agreed by the STUC would be used for the first time to handle the transfer of NHS staff to the new private employer.
However, Stevie Hamill, Unison's assistant branch secretary, said: "This is a real slap in the face for our support staff members who only recently have been commended by Forth Valley health board for their efforts in dealing with major service change.
"The board talk about partnership working but our members today are asking us why they have been so easily sidelined by their management partners.
"These are the same staff who have won national awards for catering and cleaning standards in the last year, now they're being sold off to the private sector. It's privatisation by another name."
Last year, a report into the development of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary using PFI uncovered a series of failures in its planning in development.
More recently, concerns have been raised that Monklands Hospital A&E in Airdrie will be downgraded, even though it serves the most deprived Lanarkshire communities, because the other hospitals in the area were built using PFI and the contractors have to be paid even if floors are empty.
Glyn Hawker, Scottish organiser for health for Unison, said: "After all the financial scandals that have dogged the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary PFI, and the service delivery problems that have beset schools across Scotland, not to mention the danger of clinical decisions being taken on the basis of having to justify PFI contracts in Lanarkshire, it is deeply disappointing that the NHS is again going to make the expensive mistake of going down the PFI route."
NHS Forth Valley named John Laing Plc as the preferred bidder to construct the new hospital and said Serco will provide the soft facilities management.
Earlier this month both firms were accused among others of taking gains "unacceptable even for an early PFI deal" from the refinancing of an English hospital.
Mr Mullen said at key stages of the Larbert project the cost of using PFI over public sector capital was being assessed and so far PFI proved better value for money.
He told The Herald the site of the new hospital was 130 hectares, leaving significant room for expansion and, given the ease of access by rail and road, it would make sense for people to travel there from across Scotland for some highly specialist services.
Plans to centralise the most complex neurosurgery procedures in one Scottish hospital took a step forward yesterday when Andy Kerr, health minister, announced John Glennie, chief executive of NHS Borders, would chair a group tasked to progress this scheme.
He added that a protocol agreed by the STUC would be used for the first time to handle the transfer of NHS staff to the new private employer.
However, Stevie Hamill, Unison's assistant branch secretary, said: "This is a real slap in the face for our support staff members who only recently have been commended by Forth Valley health board for their efforts in dealing with major service change.
"The board talk about partnership working but our members today are asking us why they have been so easily sidelined by their management partners.
"These are the same staff who have won national awards for catering and cleaning standards in the last year, now they're being sold off to the private sector. It's privatisation by another name."
Last year, a report into the development of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary using PFI uncovered a series of failures in its planning in development.
More recently, concerns have been raised that Monklands Hospital A&E in Airdrie will be downgraded, even though it serves the most deprived Lanarkshire communities, because the other hospitals in the area were built using PFI and the contractors have to be paid even if floors are empty.
Glyn Hawker, Scottish organiser for health for Unison, said: "After all the financial scandals that have dogged the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary PFI, and the service delivery problems that have beset schools across Scotland, not to mention the danger of clinical decisions being taken on the basis of having to justify PFI contracts in Lanarkshire, it is deeply disappointing that the NHS is again going to make the expensive mistake of going down the PFI route."
NHS Forth Valley named John Laing Plc as the preferred bidder to construct the new hospital and said Serco will provide the soft facilities management.
Earlier this month both firms were accused among others of taking gains "unacceptable even for an early PFI deal" from the refinancing of an English hospital.
Mr Mullen said at key stages of the Larbert project the cost of using PFI over public sector capital was being assessed and so far PFI proved better value for money.
He told The Herald the site of the new hospital was 130 hectares, leaving significant room for expansion and, given the ease of access by rail and road, it would make sense for people to travel there from across Scotland for some highly specialist services.
Plans to centralise the most complex neurosurgery procedures in one Scottish hospital took a step forward yesterday when Andy Kerr, health minister, announced John Glennie, chief executive of NHS Borders, would chair a group tasked to progress this scheme. |
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