Tonight:
5°c
NHS spends £350m on consultants
10 May 2009- Rangers FC appoints administrator
- Inflation plunges to 14-month low
- Osborne defends cuts after warning
- Solo Kate in Valentine's city visit
- Qatada deportation talks continue
- Perjury file over Lawrence trial
- £500,000 seized from canoeist wife
- Most hate crimes feature racism
- Bangkok bomber injured in own blast
- Houston's hits set to storm charts
The NHS spent £350 million hiring management consultants in England last year, according to figures released.
The Royal College of Nursing, which used freedom of information legislation to obtain the figures, branding the spending "utterly shocking" at a time when the health system is being asked to make savings.
Some £273 million of the money spent was not related to patient care, said RCN chief executive Peter Carter - the equivalent of 330 fully-staffed 28-bed medical wards, 9,160 experienced staff nurses or 267,647 bed days in an intensive baby care unit.
The bulk of the money was being spent on setting up competition in the health service and supporting bids for Foundation status by NHS trusts, he said.
"These figures are utterly shocking when you consider the difference that this money could have made to patients," said Dr Carter. A very significant sum of money is clearly being spent on setting up competition in the NHS and pursuing Foundation status, rather than being invested in patient care."
A scathing report earlier this year into up to 1,200 excess deaths in Mid-Staffordshire criticised the trust board for being more interested in attaining foundation status than patient care.
The RCN believes that the actual total spent on management consultants in 2008/09 may be higher, as more than 40% of the NHS organisations which it contacted did not provide details of their spending within the legal deadline.
Cutting the money spent on management consultants could deliver 11% of the £2.3 billion savings demanded from the Department of Health in Chancellor Alistair Darling's Budget last month, said Dr Carter.
"Before the Department of Health and local health trusts look at cutting frontline services, training budgets or new facilities, they need to look very carefully at the money spent on external advice and what value is added to the patient experience," he said.
According to the RCN, some 39% of the money spent on management consultants was devoted to market testing designed to help providers and commissioners select the most profitable solutions in the NHS marketplace, 23% to supporting applications for foundation status, 13% to "provider separation" and 12% to advice on the Private Finance Initiative.
Reader views (2)
At lot of these services, such as they are, should have been provided free as the consultants probably stood to gain if the proposals had been accepted. A lot of the administrators are clueless and have no sense. For instance, St. Georges in Tooting have allowed a small Marks and Sparks food shop and cafe to open in their entrance hall. All would welcome it but the cafe selling cakes and sandwiches has no hand washing facilities so staff, visitors and even patients that go there wander round the hospital with their fingers covered in cream and food particles.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, England, 10/05/2009 12:05
Report abuse
This is peanuts when compared to what Gormless Brown is spending on "consultants" in Central Government.
Absolutely scandalous.
The UK is bankrupt.
No wonder.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe/Lancaster, 10/05/2009 11:30
Report abuse
