Who pays for hospitals?

Published on Wednesday 20 February 2008 20:26

My heart sank when I saw your headline over the story about the projected costs of the new Glasgow hospitals, "Taxpayer to pick up £842m hospital bill" (20 February). Who did you think was going to "pick up" the bill? The PFI companies? Northern Rock? Or perhaps the non-dom captains of the financial services pigsty who "pay less tax than their cleaners" (your report, same day)?

Let's start by assuming public services have to be paid for by the public. PFI schemes simply delay the bill and, by their very nature, increase it. They jink their money-spinning way past public-sector borrowing rules and deliver more public buildings than we ever thought we could afford.

But in the end we'll have to pay for them, and for the private finance, and for the profits of the PFI companies. So, please, now that we have established the right to see the actual contracts, can we start to discuss whether there really is "no alternative"?

IAN TAYLOR

Manse Road

Edinburgh