The buck passing by East Lancs politicians regarding the disastrous state of affairs at Royal Blackburn Hospital has been revealed, ironically by arch-privatisation Tory minister Francis Maude, as due to the extortionate Private Finance Initiative and the debilitating repayments.
At the end of the contract, they will total £680 million for a building that cost £113 million.
It can only mean further cuts in the hospital service.
Local politicians should demand that this appalling contract is renegotiated. But that would be admitting that the private financiers run round those responsible for overseeing the contract.
MP Jack Straw claimed this project as one of his successes.
It would be interesting to know what he describes as failure.
Labour politicians started the health service in 1947 when the country was on its knees paying for World War Two in a crisis far worse than the present.
It looks like the present crop of politicians are hell bent on destroying it.
DON RISHTON, Blackburn
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