Delayed Wolverhampton PFI hospitals scheme enlarged

Revised plans for the delayed £300m privately financed Wolverhampton Hospitals scheme call for more operating theatres and increased outpatient facilities.

The revised outline business case (OBC) is due to go before the Birmingham and Black Country Strategic Health Authority later this month.

The future of the scheme hangs on the outcome of the Strategic Health Authority's review of services, due to be completed this month. The review is looking at all NHS services in the area and seeks to identify the region's key clinical needs and how they should be delivered.

Hospitals plunged into limbo by the review include the £300m Wolverhampton Hospitals PFI scheme and the £117m Walsall Hospitals PFI scheme, both of which were due to be advertised this year. One option the review will consider is combining the Wolverhampton and Walsall schemes into a batched PFI.

In a recent statement, the Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The effect of applying new planning assumptions has led to an increase in the projected numbers of theatres and a transfer of inpatient surgical beds to day beds."

However, the trust warns that the review may impact on its revised business case.

The OBC, due to be approved this month, will be followed by a public consultation on the Black Country review which is expected to take another three months.

Providing the revised OBC is approved the scheme will be advertised in the OJEU in April 2004.