3.10 Contracts aim to allocate risks to the party best able to manage them. Contractors will, however, seek to pass risk back to the taxpayer if Trusts do not meet their obligations or enforce the contract.
3.11 We found a few Trusts having difficulty meeting their obligations to allow contractors to manage maintenance risk. Clinical activity can often affect the ability of contractors to undertake some preventative maintenance. PFI hospitals have a similar occupancy level to non-PFI hospitals,5 and are subject to the same national targets and incentives to keep levels of clinical activity high. However, failure by PFI hospitals to allow scheduled preventative maintenance means they are accepting a risk which they have paid to transfer, until such time that they can allow maintenance to be completed. Twenty-one per cent of survey respondents said occupancy levels were affecting planned preventative maintenance, such as lift maintenance. Twenty-three per cent said it was affecting lifecycle maintenance such as redecorating wards. One case study Trust told us that they had surrendered the right to charge deductions for theatre unavailability because planned preventative maintenance was not completed.
3.12 These issues may become more prevalent as more contracts near their scheduled first major refurbishments, normally between 5 and 10 years after becoming operational.
3.13 In March 2010 the estates maintenance firm Jarvis, which provided services at three operational PFI hospitals, went into administration. At the time of writing, the Trusts were still receiving services and the Department was clear that the risk of ensuring continuity of service sat with the ProjectCo.
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5 Eric data shows that in 2008, the average occupancy of PFI hospitals was 85.1 per cent, compared to 86.9 per cent in non-PFI hospitals.