Hospital trust criticised over spending

Oct 11 2006

NEW figures revealing a Worcestershire hospital trust paid management and financial consultants nearly half a million pounds to try and tackle its £30 million debt have been criticised.

Peter Luff, MP for Mid Worcestershire, said the money had been spent meeting financial targets set by the Government over the last two years.

He said did not blame Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which announced 720 job losses in April this year, for spending the money this way and pointed the finger at Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt who he said had forced them to do it.

The Tory MP said: "The Trust is struggling to find ways of addressing a situation not of its making, but the end result is that they are sacking hundreds of staff - including hospital chaplains who care for the minds and souls of patients and staff - while employing legions of management consultants to do the bidding of Patricia Hewitt. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

"The Health Secretary is underfunding Worcestershire's health service. She is imposing massive costs on the NHS to meet her targets. She refuses to pay the £5 million pounds extra cost of our expensive PFI hospital. She has been taking money away from our local health service to meet deficits elsewhere. She has messed up initiatives like 'payment by results' which made it impossible to for the Trust to budget accurately. This deficit was made in Whitehall."

Mr Luff said confirmation that the Trust had spent £419,892 on management and financial consultants over the past two financial years had been received following a Freedom of Information request by Shadow Health Minister Stephen O'Brien.

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