Shocking book reveals true cost of private NHS funding
Added: (Fri Mar 01 2019)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Do you ever wonder why so many hospital trusts are struggling to balance their budgets?
A renowned investigative journalist has now lifted the lid on money-draining PFI contracts that are crippling the NHS. John Lister’s staggering new book, Unhealthy Profits, is a damning account of consistent money-wasting by health boards up and down the country.
The detailed expose has already reached number one in Amazon’s medical charts and also been rewarded with five-star reviews by readers.
John said: “The Private Finance Initiative – which is the use of private funds to build public sector infrastructure – began in 1992. Since then it has been one of the most contentious policies advocated by both Conservative and Labour governments.
“After 25 years of costly failure – costing over £80 billion for buildings built for £12 billion - the policy has now been abandoned by Labour and Tory parties.
“Many PFI companies are now owned offshore, paying no tax on profits, while the extra costs of PFI hang like a millstone dragging down NHS trusts”
The publication of Unhealthy Profits was initially commissioned by the UNISON branch at the Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust – one of many trusts struggling to meet repayments.
John added: “Unhealthy Profits explores the theory and practice, costs and consequences of PFI, how it has spread world-wide, and what can be done about it.”
As well as a well-respected journalist and author, John is a formidable campaigner and academic. For the past 35 years he has specialised in health journalism – after taking the job of Information Director at what was then the GLC-funded London Health Emergency in the spring of 1984.
As well as producing 72 issues of Health Emergency newspaper up to 2015 and working with a number of trade union bodies to produce a wide variety of reports, John has written two books on the history and development of the NHS and completed a PhD in global health which has also been published as a top-selling book and revised and updated in 2013.
John has also taught health policy at masters-level at Coventry University for 20 years, and worked part time teaching journalism and a health journalism.
Since the autumn of 2015 John has worked in England with other campaigners and union activists to launch a new coalition Health Campaigns Together, which continues and widens the work begun by London Health Emergency.
But it is this latest project, which began with John assisting the Mid Yorkshire Healthcare branch of UNISON with analysis of trust policies and proposals, which led to the publication of Unhealthy Profits.
John is a proud grandfather, and now lives in Leamington Spa. He has followed PFI from its origins and conducted detailed research and analysis on a number of major PFI projects in England, Wales and Scotland.
Unhealthy Profits has been described as ‘astonishing’, ‘compelling’ and ‘fascinating’ bey readers.
For more details, visit Amazon and search for John Lister, where the paperback and Kindle formats of Unhealthy Profits are both available.
Notes to the editor
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