The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed to step in to help Worcestershire’s hospital manager with their Private Finance Initiative management as part of range of measures to help the Trust move out of financial danger. The support follows a request from West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin and her county MP colleagues to support the newly-appointed management team as it deals with a serious budget over-spend issue. Health Minister Stephen Hammond has written to Harriett confirming that the Worcestershire Acute Trust will get extra support managing the funding arrangements which originally paid for the new city hospital. The announcement delivers on a range of measures confirmed in the last Budget to help NHS managers with their financial planning and ensure they get best value from PFI contracts. The controversial PFI deals were extensively rolled out in the UK from 1997 and have often left public sector bodies like NHS Trusts with unmanageable debt. Harriett commented: “I have had some detailed conversations with the local NHS Acute Trust management about their finances and wrote to the Department urging them to work with the team as they try to sort out some of the serious budget issues. “I pressed for the county to become part of this PFI support programme a couple of years ago and I am glad that this good news is confirmed. “The PFI deal which delivered the new city hospital left us with a facility that was too small and too expensive but I am glad that the Department is now working hand in hand with our local NHS managers to get the best possible value for us as taxpayers.”