Private finance initiative hospital architecture: towards a political economy of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital

This article argues for the importance of going beyond the hospital walls to include the politics that underwrite the design and construction of hospital buildings. The article assesses the case of the yet‐to‐be‐realised Liverpool Royal University Hospital, and the private finance initiative (PFI) funding that underpins the scheme, which is suggested as a salient ‘external’ context for understanding architecture's role in the provision of healthcare of many kinds for many years to come. PFI has major implications for democratic accountability and local economy, as well as for the architecture of the hospital as a site of care. Critical studies can illuminate these paradoxically visible‐but‐opaque hospital spaces by going beyond that which is immediately empirically evident, so as to reveal the ways in which hospital architecture is conditioned by political and economic forces.
Source: Sociology of Health and Illness - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research