Where did I, or anyone else say 'any amount of money' or anything interpretable in that way?
There were credible scenarios, which could not have been discounted at the time, in which that capacity would have been needed. Spain set up emergency hospitals in convention centres, and a morgue in an ice rink. Those were exactly the model we prepared to follow in the UK.
As for the costs structure of the US model, frankly I have no idea. The NHS here works completely differently, suppliers do price gouge we're not immune to it, but that sort of thing can't really happen at the bed-provision level as that's an administrative rather than commercial issue.
There were credible scenarios, which could not have been discounted at the time, in which that capacity would have been needed. Spain set up emergency hospitals in convention centres, and a morgue in an ice rink. Those were exactly the model we prepared to follow in the UK.
As for the costs structure of the US model, frankly I have no idea. The NHS here works completely differently, suppliers do price gouge we're not immune to it, but that sort of thing can't really happen at the bed-provision level as that's an administrative rather than commercial issue.