The NHS spent £350 million on external management consultants in the last financial year.
More than £273 m of this was not related to direct patient care and equates to the cost of 330 fully staffed medical wards, each with 28 beds. The RCN has obtained the figures after questioning 240 NHS organisations in England under the Freedom of Information Act. The RCN said that reducing the money spent on external management consultancy could deliver 11% of the expected reduction in Government spending on health announced in the 2009 budget, without jeopardising patient care. RCN chief executive and general secretary, Dr Peter Carter said: “These figures are utterly shocking when you consider the difference that this money could have made to patients. 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. “You only have to look at what happened at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to see the consequences of this. The RCN believes that the full expenditure may be considerably higher, and we will be pursuing all NHS organisations to reveal the full extent of this expenditure. No NHS organisation should be allowed to exclude themselves from proper scrutiny.” The RCN is urging the Department of Health and local health Trusts to look at the money being spent on external advice and what added value this is providing for patients before cutting frontline services, training budgets or new facilities.
