So, it looks like an NHS trust in the UK is going to go bankrupt.
Why ?
Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) are partnerships between private companies and public services. The private company, or consortium, stumps up the finance for the public service and the NHS trust then repays the private company under a system of annual fees.
In this particular case a private consortium invested £210 million, building two hospitals. South London Healthcare NHS Trust have so far paid back £535 million.
They still owe another £2 billion on the remainder of the contract.
Look at those figures again. borrowed £210 million, repaid £535 million, £2 billion left to pay.
Of course, the NHS money all comes from taxpayers and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Yet another example of Gordon Brown’s incompetence driving ordinary people into debt slavery, while enriching further the wealthy.
theneedleblog 
I reckon the Shakey drivel overloaded the duplicate post checker and it melted
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I’m a little surprised that they didn’t warn bloggers before hand or give a better idea about when it’s due back up.
Maybe, they have a RBS monthly direct debit for disqus ? ;-)
The people who should be hanged for this are the idiots who negotiated the contracts….
They all just seemed to think that the bigger the number the better…
Have you ever seen a contract in the Private sector for an IT contract when the contractor gets more money for late delivery ??? No me Neither… Every where else in the real world there would be penalties for non delivery
Catherine,
There is plenty of blame to go around. It seems symptomatic of a belief in continually escalating boom.
The notion that these contracts would ever be affordable is the product of a ponzi mentality.
You are right….. That ideal hasn’t gone away. They still buy PC’s for £2000 when they could get them at PC World for £400…
Any ideas what has happened at the Telegraph ?
Wonga rates !
And we’re paying.
If I had not read this elsewhere too, I’d find it unbelievable. As you say, the Great Gordo has a lot to answer for. What the heck rate of interest is that?