Consultancy costs NHS too much | Peter Carter
The NHS spends at least £350m a year on management consultants – a figure that we suspect could be much higher. If anything pointed out the waste and inefficiencies that could be cut from an NHS budget, this was surely it.
Of the huge figure spent on these consultants, 78% (or £273m) was spent on projects that did not directly affect patient care. These include rebranding trusts, changing logos, or renaming organisations to make them more attractive to potential patients. The RCN has nothing against management consultants, but when one considers that the money spent on them could pay for 330 fully-staffed medical wards, one has to question the virtue of this expenditure.
If the NHS is to look at ways to reduce spending, then we must examine costs such as these. What we mustn't do is wield the axe on our frontline services and the areas that comfort, cure and care for patients.
Peter Carter is general secretary of Royal College of Nursing