news story

3rd March 2009

New Southmead Risks Being a 'Multi-Million Pound Mistake'

Commenting on today's announcement of a 'preferred provider' for the new 'super-hospital' at Southmead, Northavon Lib Dem MP Steve Webb said:

"Our local hospitals certainly need modernising, but choosing Southmead for the new super-hospital site risks being a multi-million pound mistake. If we are to have just two hospitals to serve the whole of Bristol and South Gloucestershire, and one is in the centre of Bristol, it makes no sense for the other to be just a few miles up the road also in Bristol.

"The decision to shut Frenchay always seemed like a bad one, but with government plans for more than 30,000 new homes in South Gloucestershire, that decision now looks a whole lot worse. Thousands of the new homes are to be built to the East of Bristol, almost on the doorstep of Frenchay, whilst thousands more are planned for areas such as Yate where people will have to drive past Frenchay to get to Southmead. In an emergency, those vital minutes could make the difference between life and death.

"I am also concerned that the Government is pressing ahead with using the discredited PFI method to finance the new hospital. Private contractors have made a fortune whilst the taxpayer has had very poor value for money on many of these schemes. Given that the Government can borrow money much more cheaply that the private sector - who are having trouble borrowing money at all - why should we pay over-the-odds for a privately funded project? This is money that should have been spent on healthcare, not on inflated borrowing costs".