The Scottish Socialist Party candidate in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Collette Bradley, has demanded the immediate scrapping of ‘PFI loan sharking’ in the NHS.
The SSP has been out on the streets speaking with local people, who’ve told us horror stories of delayed hospital treatment, problems getting a GP appointment, with hospital staff describing the burnout they face, being understaffed, underpaid and overworked.
Collette said:
“Instead of taxing the rich to fund a fully public National Health Service, both Labour and the SNP have used privatised PFI (Private Finance Initiative) schemes in our hospitals. That includes two local hospitals, Hairmyres and Wishaw, under Labour, and the likes of Edinburgh Sick Children’s hospital under the SNP. Now Keir Starmer’s Labour government has plans for further privatisation of our NHS.
“The financial consequences of PFI are catastrophic and help explain why our NHS is haemorrhaging cash and unable to offer basic services or hire adequate staff numbers.
“It’s daylight robbery of the public for the benefit of moneylenders who get annual fees for building and managing hospitals, in PFI contracts that last 30 years or more. And at the end of paying millions of public funds to the PFI loan sharks, many of the buildings still don’t even belong to the NHS!
“In the case of Wishaw hospital, private speculators invested £100million to build it, but taxpayers are forced to repay them £813million in PFI fees. So, Labour’s scheme means we buy 8 hospitals but only get one!
“It gets worse! Hairmyres hospital cost £68million in capital investment, for which we, the public, must hand over £700million. So, in this case, Labour says ‘Buy ten hospitals and get just one’!
“The money siphoned off by the PFI loan sharks at Hairmyres alone could instead hire about 850 nurses.
“Unlike Labour and the SNP, the Scottish Socialist Party calls for the outright, immediate cancellation of all these PFI contracts, which could easily be done through renegotiating the contracts – which is commonplace in business. That’s what corporate lawyers are for.
“I publicly challenge the other candidates in this by-election to match the demand by the SSP for immediate cancellation of all PFI schemes in our hospitals; a windfall tax on the companies who have robbed us for 30 years through these privatisation schemes; and for investment of these hundreds of millions into staff, equipment and Scottish people’s health, not loan sharks’ wealth”
