Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Burns and Penny Mordaunt

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

15. What advice his Department provides to NHS trusts seeking to renegotiate private finance initiative contracts.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr Simon Burns)]

This Department and the Treasury provide guidance and advice to NHS schemes to maximise the savings and best value for money they can achieve when making variations to their PFI contracts for additional services or facilities, conducting market testing exercises for support services or when assessing refinancing requests from their private sector partners.

[Penny Mordaunt]

What can the Government do to assist the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, which is under serious financial pressure because of its PFI contract, a £37 million deficit and, thanks to false planning assumptions, not enough patients to make a super hospital sustainable?

[Mr Burns]

May I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her assiduous work in her constituency? She represents her constituents and looks after their interests regarding the provision of the highest quality health care. From conversations that I have had with her, I fully appreciate her concerns about the financial situation. I understand that South Central strategic health authority is working closely with the trust as it implements a cost-improvement programme to achieve financial balance.