Private finance scheme for Worcester “will cut beds”

The private finance initiative (PFI) scheme used to finance the building of a new hospital for the Worcester Royal Infirmary will leave Worcestershire with one of the lowest levels of hospital provision in the country, a report published last week claims.

The report, published by the health policy and health services research unit at University College London, also claims that the resulting downgrading of services at Kidderminster will leave the town with a clinical centre that is widely regarded as unsafe.

The authors of the report, Professor Allyson Pollock, David Price, and Dr …