Karin Smyth

Karin Smyth

Labour — Bristol South

Speaking in the House of Commons on 25 November 2025

Debate

New Hospital Programme

Contribution

Yes, I can give the hon. Gentleman that guarantee. The last Government could have learned the lessons of some of the PFI schemes that were very costly and did not run. Why did they not learn those lessons? Why did they not take action to reverse some of the decline? Why did they not take control of the system and do something about it? We have learned the lessons from those schemes, thanks in part to the great work done by parliamentarians on Committees such as the Public Accounts Committee. The new system to build the new neighbourhood health centres, which are fundamental to our drive to shift care out of hospital, will be different and will be publicly owned; they will revert to the public. The schemes are fundamentally different, and I am very happy to talk about it in more detail.

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