A HOSPITAL chief has revealed why the £82 million Worcestershire Royal Hospital will end up costing taxpayers £720 million.

John Rostill, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, has denied reports published in a Sunday newspaper that the cost of paying back private investors over 30 years for the hospital would be £899 million – more than 10 times the original costs.

However, he did say the total cost of paying back Catalyst, the company behind the private finance initiative (PFI) deal, would be in the region of £720 million. This cash, paid back at a rate of £24 million a year, includes a £7 million per year mortgage and the costs of essential services such as catering, security and porters.

Mr Rostill said: “Clearly it may seem a lot that we’re paying back but people have to realise we got a brand new hospital which should last another 60 years. I have no idea where the Sunday newspaper got its figures from.”

Worcestershire Royal Hospital, which opened its doors in March 2002, is one of more than 100 hospitals built under the private finance initiative (PFI) which involves loans of private cash to build public hospitals.

Mike Foster, Labour MP for Worcester, defended the decision to use private cash to build the hospital.

Mr Foster said the people of Worcester had been on a promise for a new hospital for the last 40 years.

He added: “Some people in Worcester perhaps can’t remember the fact we had a Victorian building in Castle Street and a World War Two army hospital in Ronkswood for our main hospitals which should have been replaced 40 years ago and weren’t.

“I remember when Tony Blair came to Worcester and he was asked if the city would get a new hospital. He said ‘yes’ and he delivered and that’s exactly what you want a Government to do – to make a promise and deliver.”

But Peter Luff, Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire, accused of Labour of hurrying through the scheme.

“I think the Worcester deal was one of the worst in the country,” he said. “We have a hospital that’s too small on a site that’s not convenient for many people in the county and a ridiculously small car park that cannot expand.

“It is also costing us an arm and a leg. I think the Government wanted these hospitals built in a hurry but cut corners in the process. If the hospital had been built two, three or even four years later we may have had a better hospital.”