THE Shadow Health Secretary says he does not regret using a PFI deal to fund the Great Western Hospital - but will seek to renegotiate the deal if Labour wins the election.

Andy Burnham was in the town centre on Saturday, with South Swindon candidate Anne Snelgrove, to rally supporters and speak with members of the public.

The GWH was built using the Private Finance Initiative under the previous Labour Government, which costs the hospital around £20 million a year.

Although the Great Western Trust is locked into the arrangement, Mr Burnham said he would try to renegotiate it, should Labour come to power.

He said: “I have no regrets the people of Swindon have a modern hospital and modern healthcare facilities. I have no regrets making sure our fantastic NHS have got the best environment to work in.

“Of course we have to make sure those facilities are affordable so if elected I will sit down with Anne and others to see if we can the PFI scheme better value. Elsewhere in the country deals have been done to restructure the way payments are made.

"We have a look at that and do whatever we can to support the trust.”

However, he also believes the bigger cost to the hospital is the money which the trust has to be paid to agencies to bring in extra staff.

Mr Burnham said: “The PFI charge is predictable but it’s the agency costs which are going through the roof and that’s the issue we’ve got to get a grip on.

“We have to act quickly and I will act on my first day in office to increase the number of nurses training places because we have to get more staff coming through if we are going to break the hold that private staffing agencies have over hospitals like the GWH.

“There are simply not enough people coming through training so they are having to use agency staff or go overseas for staff.

"All of this is costly and doesn’t bring in staff that are there for the long-haul. What we want are local young people from this area being brought into nursing training so they can work at the GWH.”

However, the Conservative candidate for South Swindon, Robert Buckland, said his party would ensure the Great Western Hospital had what it needed to cut down the delays.

“Labour were responsible for the PFI deal and did nothing in the seven years they were in power,” he said.

“Andy Burnham is hardly in a position to give us guarantees when he opposed our spending on the NHS. The Conservatives will spend more on the NHS and I have already net the hospital and indicated I will look to help renegotiate the PFI deal.

“It’s all very well talking about increasing staff but where are they going to come from. Does he have a magic wand?

“The number of nurses, doctors and midwives are increasing but it takes time to train them.”