Birmingham Children’s Hospital paid spin doctors £16k
Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Edgbaston, who initially raised concerns about the hospital, said: “This was a completely inappropriate response. The answer was to admit something had gone wrong and to say how they would put it right, as soon as possible.”
Coun Deirdre Alden, chairman of Birmingham’s Health Scrutiny Committee, said it was “outrageous”.
“Money given to the NHS should be spent on frontline services, not on spin to make a good story,” she said.
The Freedom of Information Act response showed the contract with LTA Communications cost £13,947 plus VAT for two senior consultants for 20 working days from February 25 to March 24.
The FOI also revealed that the hospital spent a further £80,000 on external communications teams and PR consultant over the past two years.
Peter Tomlinson, the former director of communications and fund-raising, was paid £62,000 externally to manage a small team and be an ambassador and figurehead for the trust.
A Children’s Hospital spokesman added: “LTA Communications was employed to assist the trust in a time of high media interest surrounding the Healthcare Commission report. They were not specifically brought in to handle the resignation of the chief executive Paul O’Connor, but this did fall within the time that LTA were employed by the trust and so they inevitably had some involvement in the handling of the media enquiries.”
The spokesman said consultants were used in an “advisory capacity but did not provide press officer facilities” even though journalists on the day were told to call LTA Communications for press officer services.
