Reclaim the NHS and the local branch of Unite the Community intend to put questions to the Lewisham and Greenwich Trust Board at its meeting on 28 April in Lewisham.
(Press Release embargoed until Monday 27 April 0800)
Local campaigners in Greenwich and Lewisham are sounding the alarm over the state of PFI contracts which are required to maintain buildings at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS hospitals.
They fear that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich will be left in an unsatisfactory condition when its PFI contract ends in 2030, as the company – Meridian Hospital Company PLC – which built and maintains the hospital has not had its monthly performance reports agreed by the Lewisham and Greenwich Trust for nearly four years.
Reclaim the NHS believes the company – Meridian Hospital Company PLC has been failing to maintain standards. According to the company’s accounts for last year: “monthly performance reports have not been agreed by the trust since June 2022 and deductions associated to these reports remain under discussion”.
Note to Editors: Meridian’s majority shareholder is Innisfree – one of the largest investment funds involved in PFI and associated with the Stoke-on-Trent City schools PFI scandal last year. Before that project ended, £24m of repairs were identified according to a BBC report, and there were “allegations that work slowed down markedly in the final year of the contract, with repair jobs marked as closed without problems being fixed.”
TSSL, the PFI company which held the contract, went into liquidation before repairs were completed. This left the local Council footing repair bills and children doing exams in freezing cold buildings.
TSSL was owned by Innisfree. BBC reporters covering the scandal understood that “Innisfree was asked if it would put money back into the Stoke-on-Trent PFI company, TSSL, having drawn significant dividends out over the years, the company declined”.
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust deducted £1m from payments due under the PFI for Lewisham hospital’s Riverside building citing service failure, and issued warning notices. The PFI company notes that it might be unable “to continue as a going concern”.
Ravensbourne Health Services Ltd built and provides maintenance and other services for the Lewisham Hospital Riverside building under a PFI contract that ends in 2036. As a result of ongoing fines and warning notices issued by the Trust “an Event of Default” occurred in August 2025.
Ravensbourne’s accounts for 2024-25 contain a carefully worded statement that acknowledges a risk that key agreements could be terminated and so create a “material uncertainty” that could “cast significant doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
Members of Reclaim the NHS and the local branch of Unite the Community will ask for more details from Lewisham and Greenwich Trust at its next Board meeting on 28th April. Campaigners will stage a lobby of the Trust outside the meeting from 9 to 10:30 am that day at Kaleidoscope Children’s Centre, 32 Rushey Green, Lewisham SE6 4JF.
Reclaim the NHS says “PFI companies are taking millions every year in profits from these contracts. In 2024 25 pre-tax profits of Meridian and Ravensbourne came to £12.45m.”
Note to editors: Reclaim the NHS is a south east London campaign group. Our action is supported by the local branch of Unite the Community
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For further information contact: Helen Mercer
Email: info@reclaimthenhs.org