FARNBOROUGH: Princess Royal hospital's 'high risk' private ward under threat (From News Shopper)

FARNBOROUGH: Princess Royal hospital's 'high risk' private ward under threat

1:50pm Saturday 20th June 2009 in

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A CONTROVERSIAL private hospital ward in Farnborough is under threat after the company behind the unit pulled the plug on a multi-million pound deal.

The private patient unit at the Princess Royal University Hospital was opened in September 2007 and saw Bromley Hospitals’ NHS Trust receive an up-front payment of £2 million.

Under the terms of the contract, the trust would also be paid more than £333,000 each year for three years, with annual payments due to rise to £483,000 next year.

But the company currently running the unit, Ramsay Healthcare UK, will pull out of the deal on June 30 - less than two years into a 10-year agreement.

The trust now in charge of the hospital in Farnborough, South London Healthcare NHS Trust, says it is “considering proposals of how best to use the facility in the future”.

A spokesman said: “This piece of work is a small component in a wider review of estates that will form part of the A Picture of Health implementation.

“Staff at the private patients unit are not employed directly by the trust, however the trust is enabling staff to join the nurse bank if they have not yet found alternative employment.”

Last year’s Taylor Report, an independent study into the financial failings at the trust, said the NHS organisation was “so desperate” to secure the £2 million up-front payment, it “willingly” reduced its original income demands.

The report stated: “The trust pursued a worthy idea, which may ultimately be very rewarding to the trust, via a route full of airy assumptions and very high risk.”

The £4.2 million unit has 25 beds in single rooms with en-suite facilities.

Secretary of the Community Care Protection Group Sue Sulis said: “I think it would be a scandalous waste of money if these beds aren’t now used.

“It was built because it was meant to off-set costs from the hospital’s PFI deal but I would like to see these facilities opened up to NHS patients.”