NHS Trust criticised for spending £1.4m on consultants
Fees for non-medical consultants incurred by Lincolnshire hospital bosses has cost the NHS £1.4million in just 11 months.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust – which runs sites in Lincoln, Boston, Grantham and Louth – has increased its spending on consultancy from £1.1m in the 2008/09 financial year to £1.4m so far during the current 2009/10 financial year.
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And the Echo can reveal that staff from top consultancy firm Ernst & Young have been employed to work on the trust's financial strategy consistently since June.
It is unclear how much this has cost the trust but ULHT say that Ernst & Young are not classed as management consultants and therefore do not form part of the trust's £70,000 spent on management consultants to date in 2009/10.
The increase in spending on consultancy has prompted Gillian Merron, MP for Lincoln as well as public health minister to ask questions to the board of ULHT.
"Local NHS bosses have a duty to ensure that any financial commitments they make result in the best possible care for patients and I have taken this issue up with senior managers of ULHT to question the increasing levels of spend given over to consultancy fees in 2009/10," said Ms Merron.
Spokesman for ULHT, Anna Temple, said the trust is obliged to spend NHS cash on some of the trust's consultancy expenditure including the Dr Foster Health Intelligence service.
"This spend includes a number of different forms of consultancy, ranging from general legal fees and advice, professional fees for architects and surveyors and property advice, to fees for services such as Dr Foster Health Intelligence and staff development and support," she said.
For more detail on the spending, see Wednesday's Echo.
3 Comments
by John, Lincoln
Wednesday, March 03 2010, 10:33AM
“They won't get sacked for this reason: Manager goes into the NHS. Works long hours and learns how to do the job. See advert at consultancy paying at least twice the wage they get with the NHS, less hours and significantly less abuse from the "expert" public on how to run a health service. Those that stay within the NHS either aren't good enough to leave or they have a real desire to help the health service, which to their credit a lot do. The basic message is, if you pay peanuts you get...”
by Peter, Germany/Lincoln
Wednesday, March 03 2010, 8:53AM
“Why ask questions Ms Merron, ask yourself why management and MP.s like yourself get paid vast amounts of money for running a businnes then have to get in consultants to tell them how to do your/their job. any ordinary worker would be sacked for incompetence if they needed help like yourselves.”
by Mike, Lincoln
Wednesday, March 03 2010, 8:35AM
“This is a fudge - Ernst and Young have to be paid for by someone, and if its not coming out of the 'management and consulting' budget it still has to come from somewhere - and E&Y won't be cheap!! Finding out how much the trust has so far paid this firm would be a revelation and may go some way to explaining why staff cannot order paper, pens, or ink for printers, and why any order for more than £50 has to be signed by a director.
This trust is stumbling from one crisis to another and covering them up quite well - staff morale is low, not suprisingly - managers are having 'away day' meetings and at these have devised a new questionnaire which is so patronising and in some cases so far removed from reality its laughable yet staff are expected to complete it and return it to identify 'problem areas'”