§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Mr. Harvey) of 3 July 2000,Official Report, column 46W, which major private finance initiative new hospital scheme has had a penalty clause invoked; what the nature of the breach of contract was; and what the penalty was under that clause. [130840]
§ Mr. DenhamThe only instance to date of a penalty clause being invoked on a new major private finance initiative hospital scheme has been for the failure of the electrical power supply system at South Buckinghamshire National Health Service Trust. The exact value of the penalty has yet to be finalised.
§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) acute and (b) immediate case beds are included in hospital projects currently being pursued under the PFI in (i) the outline business case and (ii) the final contract. [131347]
§ Mr. DenhamFigures for bed numbers are provided for all the major private finance initiative hospital schemes (capital value £25 million or over) which have a 281W signed final contract. 'Acute' beds is interpreted as meaning all staffed in-patient beds excluding day case beds. In addition to providing the indicative requirement
Trust Current number of in-patient beds Number of in-patient beds proposed in the OBC Number of in-patient beds in PFI scheme Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust 453 400 402 Carlisle Hospitals NHS Trust 1— 474 444 South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust 550 537 537 Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust 955 809 953 North Durham Health Care NHS Trust 544 565 476 Greenwich Healthcare NHS Trust 588 621 571 Calderdale Healthcare NHS Trust 704 569 569 South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust 882 881 910 Bromley Healthcare NHS Trust 621 540 525 Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust 437 406 426 Worcester Royal Infirmary NHS Trust 483 390 474 Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust 379 340 340 South Durham Healthcare NHS Trust 334 304 304 South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 1,033 955 1,010 Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust 540 516 463 King's Healthcare NHS Trust 903 895 902 St. George's Hospital NHS Trust 1,026 1,017 1,050 University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH) 660 619 664 1 New PFI hospital now fully open All of these schemes apart from UCLH reached financial close before the publication of the National Beds Inquiry (NBI) report. NHS trusts and health authorities were not required to specifically identify intermediate care bed provision as part of their service planning strategies.
UCLH revised its general and acute bed numbers in the light of the NBI report. Also following from the NBI report, all PH and publicly funded hospital schemes under construction and which involve reductions in bed numbers have been instructed to ensure that parallel plans, for example for expanding intermediate care, should be established as quickly as possible.