PFI failure at Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, says NAO

The National Audit Office (NAO) has criticised the quality of financial management by the board of Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust, following a decision to use a PFI scheme to build the new Peterborough City Hospital (pictured).

According to a report by the NAO, the then board compounded the decision to proceed with the scheme, which it could not afford, with a failure to monitor other changes affecting its income and costs between 2007 and 2011. The result was that the Trust faced a very large, recurrent deficit once the new hospital opened.