MP Barry Sheerman has accused Prime Minister David Cameron of ‘reneging’ on his pledge to ‘sort out’ a PFI deal which is strangling local hospital services.
During a visit to Halifax before the 2015 general election, Mr Cameron criticised the PFI used to build Calderdale Royal Hospital.
The hospital was worth £64m but the trust will have to pay £774m to investors by 2058.
Critics of the upcoming hospital shake-up plan, which could lead to the closure of Huddersfield A&E, say it has been dictated by PFI repayments.
The Right Care Right Time Right Place plan will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday.
Last year, on his visit to Halifax, Mr Cameron said: “After the election what we want to do is what we’ve done with other hospitals, which is sort out the PFI mess and financial mess that they’re in.”
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In Parliament last month Mr Sheerman asked if the Government would investigate ‘the value for money’ of the PFI deal which was used to build the Halifax hospital.
But Minister of State for Health, Alistair Burt, replied that the Conservative Government had ‘no plans to undertake such an inquiry’.
Mr Burt said: “This Government launched an initiative in 2011 to extract savings and optimise value for money in operational private finance initiative (PFI) contracts.
“This included a pilot exercise at a major NHS PFI scheme which resulted in guidance with appropriate methodology and lessons learned being issued to all relevant NHS trusts in 2012.
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“The Department (of Health) has specialist officials to assist trusts in implementing the guidance.”
Now Mr Sheerman has accused Mr Cameron of failing to honour his pre-election pledge.
The Labour member for Huddersfield said: “Before the election David Cameron pledged to deal with the terrible PFI deal which financed the building of Calderdale Royal Hospital and which has put A&E services in Huddersfield under threat.
“To hold him to account on this I tabled a parliamentary question asking whether the Government plans to investigate the value for money of the Calderdale PFI deal, and the Government has now replied saying they have no plans to undertake an investigation.
“Like many people from Huddersfield, I feel badly let down that David Cameron has reneged on his promise, so I have written to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, urging him to reconsider.
“I continue to work closely with Paula Sherriff, and on a cross-party basis with Jason McCartney, to do everything within our power to save our A&E and work for better healthcare outcomes in Huddersfield. ”
