Some 10,000 households across Hull and East Yorkshire with access to digital TV can now access a local NHS Direct Digital service which provides some 20,000 pages of first aid and healthy living information, pictures and video-on-demand. The information will allow them to build TV programmes, and devise quizzes. Viewers can also get details of local GP surgeries, pharmacies, hospitals and local blood donation sessions.The Department of Health has commissioned four interactive digital television pilots. Last month an NHS Direct service was launched for digital TV viewers in the Birmingham area to allow them to see the nurse listening to their problem and giving advice – see Publicnet Briefing 9 November. The Hull service is provided by the Kingston Group which has served business and residential customers in the area since 1904. The content is provided by Communicopia – the UK’s fourth largest interactive TV agency.
Think ahead is the message from the National Audit Office to public bodies involved in the Public Finance Initiative. In its report ‘Managing the Relationship to Secure a Successful Partnership in PFI Projects’ it calls for a continuing move from rigid specifications to focusing on the more critical outcomes. The future is unknown and uncertain, but one certainty is that things will change and pfi contracts must take account of change which can bring better value for money. Two weaknesses identified by the NAO study are that contracts seldom provide for both parties to share in gains and that public service culture limits the freedom of contractors to introduce innovations.The cost of finance is one of the most expensive ingredients in a PFI contract and refinancing can cut the cost and increase profit by as much as 80%. Refinancing is possible because tenders are submitted on the basis of quoted interest rates from banks, but once a facility – which might be a prison, school or hospital – is built, the level of risk falls substantially. There is a significant risk of a building not being completed by its due date, or of some failure which might prevent its completion. There may also be a chance of not being able to recruit sufficient numbers of qualified and experienced workers to open a facility on time. But once the facility is built and staffed, the operators have a guaranteed market and a client who will not go bust. The NAO found that 85% of pfi contracts made no provision for contractors to share any benefits from refinancing.