4. Are your concerns about PFI in particular or the use of the private sector in health services per se?
This is a political question. The response lies in understanding what are the goals of the system, and what are the most effective and cost efficient mechanisms and systems to deliver them. No government has been able to provide the evidence or the data to support the claim that the private sector and market delivery provides a more efficient universal system of health care than one that is under government control and public ownership. On the contrary, PFI provides an example of how market mechanisms leading to reductions, in service, loss of access and entitlements and fragmentation, undermining planning.