THE Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals could be hit by a multi-million pound increase in their business rates in the coming five years.

Family doctors surgeries and health centres also face big rises in the bills to pay for council services under a review of valuations being undertaken by the government.

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Russ McLean, chairman of the East Lancashire Patients’ Voices Group said: “This could spell the death knell of the NHS.

“A big increase in business rates bills is the last thing the East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust needs. The Royal Blackburn and Burnley General are big sites and could see a multi-million pound increase in their business rate bills.

“The trust and the NHS in East Lancashire is under heavy financial and patient pressure and our hospitals, GP surgeries and health centres will be forced to cut services to patients to pay extra towards local council services.”

Mr McLean was speaking after an analysis of the revaluation by London property advisors Gerald Eve said nationally NHS hospitals and GP surgeries could see a £635 million hike in their business rates over five years.

It predicted that their annual bill would rise by a third on average by 2021 from £328million to £418million.

GPs and health centres will also see their costs rise, from £257 million to £332 million a year over the same period.

Peterborough City Hospital will see its rates rise from £2.5million to £4.8million by 2021, while the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust’s bill is set to rise from £4.2million to £7.6million.

An EHLT spokesman said: “We are aware of this potential increase in business rates. We are evaluating its effect on the trust at the moment.”

A spokeswoman said on behalf of the East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Groups: “It is not possible yet to fully understand or quantify the impact that this will have across our health economy.”

A Government spokesman said: “This revaluation improves the fairness of rate bills by making sure they more closely reflect the property market. We have also introduced a £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme to limit the impact of any increases.”

Sally Gainsbury, a senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: “Hospitals are currently overspending at a rate of between £150 million and £250 million a month.

“They will struggle to absorb an extra hit like this - the NHS is already in severe financial difficulties.”