£63bn PFI bill for the NHS

The NHS is facing a £63bn bill for PFI hospitals which are only worth a fraction of that.

The NHS still owes £58bn on more than a hundred PFI contracts over the next three decades, and will have to pay back more than £7bn in PFI payments over the next Parliament alone (2010-2015).

This is the disastrous reality of Labour’s managemant of the NHS. We’re in one of the most difficult financial periods in the NHS’s history and this Government’s legacy will be a mountain of debt. Despite the huge sums of money we owe for these hospitals, many will never end up in public hands. Hospitals all over the country are mortgaged to the hilt and there are serious concerns that these repayments will lead to cuts in vital services.

We need a new approach to public services in this country. By setting up an infrastructure bank we Lib Dems will ensure that key projects get access to the funding they need to revitalise our economy.

We Lib Dems will change how the NHS works so that patients come first and money goes further.

Pocket-money price of alcohol has devastating impact

Almost 10,000 people could die every year because of their drinking. Research from the University of the West of England shows that 90,800 people could die avoidable deaths from alcohol-related causes in the next decade if we continue to drink at the average rate of the past 15 years.
The research maps the whole population’s level of drinking with the number of deaths from alcohol-related causes.
The new findings also show there has been a TREBLING of deaths from 3,054 in 1984 to 8,999 in 2008, as consumption has increased over the past 25 years.

The numbers include diseases directly caused by alcohol and alcohol poisoning, and DO NOT INCLUDE DEATHS CAUSED INDIRECTLY BY ALCOHOL, such as those from drink-driving or cancers which have been caused in part by drinking.
Prof. Martin Plant has said that the UK has experienced "an epidemic of alcohol-related health and social problems" and he recommends "introducing a minimum unit price of 50p" which would cut alcohol-related hospital admissions, crimes, and absence days from work.
These chilling figures are a stark reminder of the shocking death toll caused by excess alcohol consumption.
The Government’s failure to invest in alcohol treatment services and their refusal to stop alcohol being sold at pocket-money prices is having a devastating impact on our health.

The high cost of cheap alcohol is becoming clearer every day.
The Government must heed the advice of its own experts and introduce a minimum price for alcohol, otherwise the death toll will continue to rise and the NHS will be forced to pick up the bill.