The NHS could be spending up to £15m on management consultants for advice on regional plans designed to overhaul health and social care in England, according to the country’s largest union.
Unite said that Jeremy Hunt needs to “come clean on the true cost” of using management consultants to advise health care leaders on drawing up local sustainability and transformation plan.
The NHS could be spending up to £15m on management consultants for advice on regional plans designed to overhaul health and social care in England, according to the country’s largest union.
Unite said that Jeremy Hunt needs to “come clean on the true cost” of using management consultants to advise health care leaders on drawing up local sustainability and transformation plan.
The union said the figure was calculated based on the news that leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire has paid Pricewaterhouse Coopers £343,000 for financial advice.
They said that if each of the 44 areas spent a similar amount of money, the figure would amount to £15m.
Sarah Carpenter, Unite national officer for health, described the spend on management consultants in Coventry and Warwickshire as “very disturbing”.
She said: “Any such funds would be much better spent on frontline services, such as under pressure A&E departments, rather than on jargon-filled reports.
“The NHS is reeling from a starvation of cash. The health service is at crisis point and we have not yet reached the worst of the winter weather.
“Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, is right to raise serious concerns at the insufficient level of NHS funding and an urgent financial injection into the health service is desperately needed.”
Stevens told the Public Accounts Committee last week that it would be “stretching it” to say the Government had given the NHS “more (money) than it asked for”.
Unite also said in its statement that the 44 areas had drawn up their plans in a vacuum without public involvement.
