They're closing our hospital...

[Cyclefrance]

Does it happen in the States?

We seem to be experinecing a love of the super-sized hospital by our current government, so much so that they are busy closing down our local hospital in Epsom. No one can really understand why.

Behind it is the myth that by going big they will make economies of scale, and so we have the prospect of our nearest hospital now being 30 to 40 minutes car/ambulance ride away, not near a train station and badly served by public transport.

Add to this that the proposed hospital is old, germ-ridden and requiring massive investment, while the Epsom hospital has been the subject of massive investment and boasts a brand new wing, then the whole thing seems even more screwball.

The new wing seems to be the outcome of a thing called a PFI, which stands for Private Finance Initiative (I think). A great idea from our government to see private industry involved in public sector projects. Private industry builds and then the customer (in this case the hospital) leases back on a long-term lease. The trouble is they all seem to overrun budget and the customer ends up with a lease/rental that is exorbitant. In the case of the new wing it's too expensive to use.

So there we have it. Nice new wing, which could be put to good use, but remains empty, and will continue to do so because the accounting method used says it's too expensive even to begin to contemplate using it. And as we have an asset that is losing so much money, it has to go!

Madness. A local benefactor even offered to buy the hospital for Pds75 million and was turned down. Instead it is being sold to a developer who will demolish the existing buildings (including the new wing - no doubt he will sell off any good bits!) and construct homes on the site - the owners of which will be short of local hospital facilities, naturally!