AN NHS hospital run under a flagship private finance initiative contract was charged £200 by a company just to hang a mirror, it has emerged.

According to information obtained by the GMB union, Darent Valley hospital in Dartford, Kent, has consistently failed to obtain good value for money.

This has been attributed largely to the private finance initiative (PFI) company “sticking on” charges for extra pieces of work not strictly covered by the wording of its contract.

The union claims the company has sent bills for £423 to fit a light socket, £333 to modify a light socket, £25 to cut a door key and £136 to put up a shelf.

Darent Valley was built by Carillion, formerly Tarmac. The Department of Health has been keen to portray the hospital as a success story and a blueprint for plans for 64 similar projects.

The union claims pressure has been brought to bear on management, in some cases to get rid of troublesome employees, because Carillion is unhappy with excessive scrutiny of its business practices.

The union also claims that some of its members working at the hospital have been subjected to highly personal campaigns against them by Carillion after they questioned the company’s performance in providing cleaning and catering facilities.

“They saw it as bad news,” said one union source. “From what we found out PFI is not in the best interests of the public and is not value for money.”

The GMB is using its clash with Carillion at the Darent Valley hospital as an opportunity to expose how PFI deals work in the private sector’s favour.

The union wants the health department to explain why it has agreed to a service contract that allows Carillion to charge extra for anything it considers is not part of the fixed contract.

Some of the cost is due to the high standard of fixtures and fittings used when Darent Valley hospital was built. Carillion has to replace items to the same standard.

Over one short period recently, these “variable” costs jumped from £14,000 a month to £163,000 because the union claims the trust failed to get a better deal.

Changes in cleaning schedules were regarded as additional to requirements and resulted in further charges.

Senior union officials describe the relationship between Carillion and the hospital trust as similar to that between a landlord and a tied tenant.

Carillion has first refusal to develop any new facility on the site. It is now building an £8m treatment centre, a £700,000 extension to the accident department and a mental assessment centre worth £5m to the company.

Last month the National Audit Office revealed that the PFI consortium involved in the construction of Darent Valley had made returns of 56% on its investment in the building alone.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “The trust has an excellent open working relationship with its PFI partners, and service level agreements are in place to ensure it receives first-class services that are value for money.”

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