TAXPAYERS are paying £64 million over the odds for Otley’s Wharfedale Hospital, according to one of the area’s candidates.

Greg Mulholland says the NHS private finance “scandal” means the £17 million hospital is actually costing £81 million.

The Liberal Democrat claims new figures show PFI repayments are projected to be nearly five times more than the hospital’s valuation.

The hospital was opened in 2004 under the then Labour government’s Private Finance Initiative. Under PFI agreements, companies that provide the infrastructure also provide long- term facilities management through long-term concession agreements.

But the deals have been strongly criticised.

Mr Mulholland said Labour signed 103 PFI deals for the NHS, with a combined value of £11.4 billion – but by the time they are paid off, they will have cost more than £65 billion.

He stressed: “Wharfedale Hospital is a valuable local facility and was warmly welcomed when it was opened in 2004. However we now find out that claims the Labour Government paid for it were a con, in fact as Panorama has said, our local hospital was basically put on a very costly credit card that will cost taxpayers nearly five times the actual value of the hospital.

“Otley residents will be astonished and appalled that something valued at £17 million should be paid for by the taxpayer to the tune of £81 million. This means that £64 million is being paid to a private company, money that could and should have been spent on our NHS.

“Sadly this is not just the case with Wharfedale Hospital, the shameful reality of PFI nationally is that NHS hospitals and projects valued at £11.4 billion are being paid off at the staggering cost of £65 billion.”

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was first introduced by the Conservatives in the early 1990s and was later adopted by Labour – becoming an important part of the Government’s programme of modernising public services.

Supporters of the scheme said it had brought unprecedented levels of improvement to schools and hospitals.