Whittington Hospital

• THE collapse of Carillion raises yet more questions for Whittington Health’s new contract with a private provider.

The board of Whittington Health has just appointed Ryhurst, a subsidiary of Rydon, the Grenfell refurbishment contractor, to manage and initially provide the capital to develop the Whittington Estates strategy.

Whittington Health provides general hospital and community services to 500,000 people living in Islington and Haringey, as well as other London boroughs.

Though it’s pressing hospitals to develop, the government will not provide funding so forcing hospitals into private finance. But why Ryhurst?

The Whittington board won’t give reasons why Ryhurst’s bid was accepted over the others. All the CEO and the board say is that there was an open procurement process which Ryhurst won.

But that depends on what was in the contract specification, which also seems not to be available to public scrutiny. We can only assume that the lowest price was the winning factor.

Just like Carillion, which has collapsed because they’ve taken underfunded contracts, which they couldn’t afford (or the profit margins weren’t big enough). So now thousands of jobs will go, pensions are under threat, and communities will decline.

The Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC) is campaigning to get Rydon out of the Whittington. We wish the workers solidarity over their jobs and pensions.

DR VALERIE LIPMAN
www.dwhc.org.uk