HC Deb 19 April 2004 vol 420 cc203-4W
Dr. Richard Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the new NHS hospitals built under the Private Finance Initiative have incurred penalty charges by exceeding the level of bed occupancy stipulated in the NHS trusts' contracts with the private consortia providing the service. [165235]

Mr. Hutton

Hospitals are not penalised or fined for having higher bed occupancy rates. All Private Finance Initiative contracts include additional payments for higher levels of services needed when there are more patients in the hospital. Bed occupancy rates are used to measure these increases.