Merseyside councils could foot the bill for a £166m spending spree on new health centres

Merseyside councils could foot the bill for a £166m spending spree on new health centres, they were warned this week.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have spent the money building the facilities with the private sector over the past couple of years.

But councils may end up paying the £17.45m annual cost of renting the buildings when PCTs are abolished in 2013.

The Department of Health said that it was too early to say who would be expected to pick up the liabilities of its Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings.The £13.8m mini-hospital currently under construction in Garston, which replaces the Sir Alfred Jones memorial hospital, is being funded under the LIFT scheme.

LIFT is another form of public-private partnership. Unlike Private Finance Initiative it involves the creation of a profit-making company to own the buildings.The NHS has a stake in the company, but the private sector must have a controlling interest. The buildings are then leased back to the NHS.

Sefton PCT has spent £14m on LIFT buildings by March 2011, with annual rental costs of £1.5m. More than 4,500 NHS staff across the Merseyside area will lose their jobs when PCTs are abolished.

Official NHS statistics show there are more than 4,500 managers and administrators employed by PCTs across Merseyside, North Cheshire and Central Lancashire.However, that total excludes clinical staff such as community nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists and speech therapists who are more likely to be re-employed.

Around 500 consortia of GPs are expected to be set up across England to commission patient care.