02 May 2003
A Scottish trust at the centre of a stinging report on its Private Finance Initiative hit back at its critics this week.
Lothian University Hospitals Trust's £210m PFI to rebuild the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which opened in January 2001, came under attack from academics in the British Medical Journal.
Researchers from Glasgow Royal Infirmary and University College London claimed the PFI scheme had reduced the NHS to an 'emergency service'. The report said greater efficiency, in for example shorter hospital stays, planned to offset bed reductions, were not met. As bed numbers fell, patients were left untreated.
However, the trust said the research was 'completely untrue' and based on inaccurate figures. 'We have treated all the patients that have presented for surgery and for all other treatment, and we achieved the Scottish waiting time guarantees that no-one waits more than nine months,' it added.
First Minister Jack McConnell was more strident, saying the academics had created a 'false argument'.
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