One of the firms that funded Coventry’s £400million super-hospital has seen its lucrative maintenance deal scrapped over a major safety breach.
Skanska is one of two companies who put up the cash to build University Hospital in Walsgrave under a private finance initiative (PFI).
As well as being repaid with interest the firm stood to profit from a multi-million pound maintenance contract covering the entire site.
However, in July the Telegraph revealed furious hospital bosses were reviewing the deal after discovering a ventilation fault in a laboratory that could have put staff in danger if a chemical or sample spill occurred.
Skanska will now be stripped of the flagship contract, with a new firm already lined up to take over.
City councillor Dave Nellist said the fiasco raised fresh concerns about the PFI deal, calling for the safety review and firm’s contracts to be published for all to see.
“At the council we would have to make this an open process, with documents explaining how and why it was taking place.
"The hospital spends public money so I can’t see why it doesn’t,” he said. Until now scrutiny of the PFI deal has centred upon the cost – taxpayers will pay £3.3billion by 2030.
The contractual controversy has now shifted focus to the transparency and accountability of the deal.
University Hospital was built by the Coventry and Rugby Hospital Company (also known as Projectco), a joint venture between two international firms Skanska and Innisfree.
The PFI deal includes a series of on-site services, which Projectco then contracts out to other firms.
Until now it has awarded those deals to its own subsidiaries.
Innisfree ran car parking, cleaning and catering through its arm, ISS.
Meanwhile Skanska maintained non-medical equipment – including the labor tory ventilation system – through Skanska Facilities Services. This is the biggest contract on site.
Coun Nellist, a long-term critic of PFI, said: “How can we be sure there is no conflict of interest between the parent company and its subsidiary?
“How can they prove it was the best company who won the contract rather than the best connected?”
The Telegraph understands Skanska is the first PFI firm to be stripped of a lucrative NHS contract and other hospitals are said to be monitoring the situation with interest.
Bosses at University Hospital always insisted they would demand the contract be terminated if they felt that was a necessary step to protect staff and patients.
This week chief executive Andy Hardy said he expected Skanska to work with its successor to ensure a seamless handover to avoid disrupting patient care or maintenance.
All of Skanska UK's website pages were mysteriously unavailable when I tried to access them!
