The reputed inability of NHS Trusts to make repayments on PFI contracts resulting in putting them under enormous financial pressure is just a smoke screen for other failings in the system, says Nick Maltby, partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP.
"It's all very well blaming PFIs, but you could blame the Government's obsession with creating Foundation Trusts and the way they are funded just as much - Foundation Trust status and PFI has never really fitted," explains Nick Maltby.
"South London Healthcare, one of the reported 22 Trusts facing difficulties was a merger between two former Trusts, both of which had PFI agreements. It's not a Foundation Trust and the combined effect of its obligations means it probably never will be; it simply won't satisfy the criteria. However, that doesn't mean that the Trusts were wrong to replace their former hospitals using PFI.
"What needs looking at is how hospitals are funded. The 'payments by results' system, upon which budgets are based, and the Foundation Trust process cause problems particularly for those with PFI hospitals. These problems will be exacerbated once the Health and Social Care Bill becomes law.
"However, there are ways of dealing with this such as making special provision for trusts with PFI debts so that they don't have to bear the full weight of the debt.
"I think we have to look much further than PFI contracts to see the faults within the NHS and iron out the incompatible policies."
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