According to the New Labour mantra, under the Private Finance Initiative, ''all risks transfer to the private sector''. Not so. After two power failures in the space of a month at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary it is evident that the real risks transfer to the staff and patients. While bed numbers, staffing, patient services, and health and safety standards have all been cut at the new ERI, one thing remains sacrosanct, Consort's profits.

Brian Cavanagh, the chair of NHS Lothian, shouldn't be demanding an apology from Consort, he should be demanding a refund of the (pounds) 1.26bn they are paid for their PFI contract. But that will never happen. Heaven forfend that patient safety should be put above the god of private profit.

Bill Scott,

1 Dudley Avenue South, Edinburgh.