NHS boilers could be shut down by EU pollution control law
Posted, March 09, 2009 @ 16:00
Conservatives propose amendments to IPPC
Around 70 NHS hospitals could face draconian costs for their boilers under proposals to bring them into an EU directive on industrial pollution, Caroline Jackson MEP, Conservative member of the European Parliament's environment committee, has warned.
The European Parliament will this week vote on a proposal to revise the directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), which was initially passed in 1996. The directive creates a permit system to prevent and limit pollution from large-scale industrial installations.
But if the plans go through, hospitals will find that even their reserve boilers will fall within the scope of the directive. NHS hospitals need to have a significant amount of spare boiler capacity to cope with emergencies and in case there are technical failures. The directive would assess their boilers on the basis of their potential emissions, rather than their actual emissions - thus causing them to incur substantial costs to obtain a permit.
Dr Jackson has submitted an amendment to the proposals that would exempt such part-time standby boilers. She has already got the backing of the 288 strong centre-right EPP-ED group.
Dr Jackson said:
"Hospitals require a great deal of spare boiler capacity to cope with fluctuations in demand and this law does not take account of that.
"Unless our amendment is passed, hospitals will be faced with the touch choice of paying the huge costs associated with this law, or shutting down boilers, which could have grave consequences for patient care. The commission should have spotted this problem when they drew up the new law: we are not the only country affected.
"The NHS has said that up to 70 hospitals across the UK could be affected, so it is crucial that we recognise their special circumstances."