After the privatization experiment failed (didn't pay off), the facility gets re-nationalized. Wanna bet that it will be re-privatized as soon as it gets profitable again ? Chris > http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,533785,00.html NHS buys private heart hospital Rebecca Allison Wednesday August 8, 2001 The Guardian The NHS has bought a private heart hospital in its first act of renationalisation since the introduction of the welfare state in 1948, it emerged last night. The Heart Hospital, a state-of-the-art 95-bed unit near Harley Street, in central London, was sold to the government for �27.5m by Parkway Healthcare yesterday, a Department of Health spokeswoman confirmed. "It is unprecedented. The company was in financial difficulties and wanted to sell. So, we decided to buy," she said. Asked whether other purchases of troubled private facilities were being considered, the spokeswoman said: "It is something we will have to look at. We won't rule it out." The deal, which is to be formally announced today, was signed after Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, concluded weeks of talks with the hospital's owners, who are based in Singapore. It is understood that almost the entire team of surgeons, nurses, managers, and cleaners are to be retained and transferred to the NHS payroll under their existing conditions by the autumn. The failure of the privately run hospital is likely to give ammunition to critics of government attempts to farm out more NHS work to the private sector. Alan Milburn, the health secretary, is trying to convince health unions they need not be suspicious of private sector involvement, an argument that could be undermined by the bail-out. The government has in recent months made much of the efficiency of privately run hospitals, arguing that its controversial private finance initiative (PFI), using a mixture of public and private funds, is the most cost effective scheme in the long term. So far 22 major PFI hospitals are under construction. A total of 64 are in development. In the next few years nearly one third of all Britain's health trusts will have one. The announcement, which appears to be a reversal of NHS building policy, is likely to fuel critics' arguments about the PFI scheme which has been dogged by problems since the first hospitals opened last year. The Heart Hospital is a specialist cardiovascular unit initially opened in 1857. It was part of the NHS between 1947 and 1989. It was re-opened in 1998 after being completely rebuilt and refurbished to offer 35 luxurious en suite single or double rooms and four operating theatres. The hospital, which has an international reputation as a leading centre for the treatment of cardio-vascular disease, undertakes almost all forms of cardiac treatment and intervention. It will now become the new cardiac centre for University College London Hospital, providing the resources to more than double the number of heart operations UCLH can carry out every year. UCLH's former cardiac unit will become a "fast-track" hospital specialising in orthopaedic and urology operations. Sir Richard Needham, the former Conservative cabinet minister and chairman of the Heart Hospital, described the sale as a "coup" for the NHS because, he said, building a similar standard of unit from scratch would have cost the NHS many millions of pounds more. "This is the best private cardiac facility in Europe and it matches anywhere else in the world," he told The Times newspaper.
