Health Trust spend over £1million with consultancy firm

The Pennine Acute Hospital Trust has spent over £1million with a top management consultancy firm, in a three month period.

The Trust, which runs the Rochdale Infirmary, spent a staggering £1,241,000 with Ernst and Young.

In December 2010 the Trust paid £100,000 to firm. In March 2011 they paid three amounts to them, totalling £765,000 and in April 2011 they paid them £376,000.

The spend comes at a time when there could be up to 1,000 job losses and vital services are being taken away from the Rochdale Infirmary.

The Trust, which also runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital and the North Manchester General Hospital, needs to make savings of £45million.

Health Campaigner, Councillor Jean Ashworth, said she was appalled with the figures. She said: “It is disgraceful and needs an independent investigator to look into these figures and more.”

Unite representative Liz McInnes, said: “This is a shocking spend.

“The Trust are coming to us and pleading poverty and degrading staff terms and conditions with the view to save money. The two don’t fit together to me. There is a big divide.

“We were assured by the chief executive at a meeting last year that they would not spend any more money with management consultants.

“They spent a phenomenal amount of money in March this year.

“It is frightening.”

A spokesperson at The Pennine Acute Trust said: "We understand why some people might ask why we are spending money on management consultants when we have a £45m savings target this year.  Put simply, it is sometimes necessary to spend up front to make larger savings in the long term.

"We need extra support and skills to work alongside our doctors, nurses and managers to identify where we can transform our services to improve the care we provide and in turn make the necessary savings. 

"Using management consultants means that we can get the extra support and skills we need for specific periods of time without the added cost of hiring additional permanent staff."

The figures can be viewed here: http://www.pat.nhs.uk/PortalVBVS/Default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=2574