Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Britain's only privately run NHS hospital appeals for £10m taxpayer-funded bailout

The only NHS hospital run by a private company has asked for a £10m taxpayer-funded bailout.

Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, is due to be handed back into NHS hands in March after the company outsourced to manage it, Circle, said it could no longer cope with rising demand and funding cuts.

However, the hospital trust’s latest financial statement reveals Circle is expecting to leave behind a deficit of between £7.7m and £12m.

Under its contract, the company is only liable to pay £5m to cover deficits incurred at the trust, and has already paid £4.8m.

The hospital has now applied to the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA), a Government health authority responsible for leadership of 99 NHS bodies, for £9.6m in “public dividend capital” funding, and also expects to borrow extra cash from the TDA.

Circle’s announcement last month that it would be withdrawing from the contract to run Hinchingbrooke – widely seen as a test case for NHS outsourcing – came hours before a highly critical inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/hinchingbrooke-hospital-britains-only-privately-run-nhs-hospital-appeals-for-10m-taxpayerfunded-bailout-10037083.html

There was a previous NHS hospital handed over to a private company to run, sold for £1, had to be bought back for £54million.