Minister defends health funding

Susan Deacon defended the use of private funds

Health Minister Susan Deacon has defended the Scottish Executive's use of private finance for public sector projects.

Union leaders said continuing use of private finance to fund major projects was going against the grain and ethos of the public sector.

Controversy has surrounded the new Hairmyres hospital at East Kilbride, where sewage has seeped through the floors and a number of staff have been moved to other posts in protest over cramped and poor working conditions.

South Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals Trust, which operates the £67.5m hospital, admitted it has experienced "teething problems" since it opened 16 week ago, but flatly denied its cancer unit would have to close.

The hospital has experienced "teething problems"

Ms Deacon has argued that private finance has helped fund repairs to schools and hospitals and should be respected for doing so.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, the minister said the new hospital at Hairmyres was not in any great difficulty.

She said: "The new Hairmyres hospital is night and day compared to the facilities staff were working in previously."

The minister rejected suggestions that the Treasury in London had pressurised companies and the executive north of the Border to increase the prevalence of private funding within public sector projects.

'Value for money'

Ms Deacon said the privately funded projects represented best value for money and this had been demonstrated through the many improvements which had been made.

"It is the case that numerous improvements have been made in these schemes both through the Treasury and by the Scottish Executive itself in recent years," she said.

"This has ensured better value for money, greater transparency and where staff are affected by these projects that the highest level of protection is provided to those involved."

Bill Speirs: Sharp criticism

Critics of the funding arrangement, dubbed public private partnership by Labour, say it is no different from the private finance initiative (PFI) introduced by the Conservative government.

Bill Speirs, the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, said while it was acceptable that new hospitals may experienced some initial problems, the nature of the private funding schemes were to blame for the difficulties.

He said: "What Hairmyres is showing up is that when things are done through PFI, it's not just that the whole project costs more, but one of the consequences is that the domestic team is contracted out to the private sector.

Public sector ethos

"And you then lose the team approach. You do not have the same public sector ethos approach that you would have if things were being kept within the public services.

"The real problem is not the Scottish Executive who have made it clear they are not keen at all on the imposition of the PFI ethos.

"It is the drive to go down this road coming from Downing Street that is causing the difficulties."