NHS Waste Revealed

A recent investigation has revealed that the NHS in London spent almost £13m on public relations over the last three years alone. This in turn suggests that, taking a national view, the amount wasted by the NHS on public relations must be in the many £10 millions, money that could and should, be spent on patient care and providing better services.

Disturbingly some £9.7m is alleged to have been squandered on press officers’ salaries at hospitals and primary care trusts (PCTs), whilst a further £3m was handed to private PR companies. This is out taxmoney we are talking about.

No wonder critics are demanding “medical doctors not spin doctors”; pointing to longer waiting times and cancelled operations in justification. Why London’s NHS trusts need 82 press officers between them, with an average salary in excess of £37K per annum, remains very much a mystery. By comparison, in 1981, records show that there were only eight press officers working in the entire NHS.

In response to mounting criticism some NHS trusts claim that the  PR spending is needed to “educate the public on health issues”.

The disclosure came after the BBC sent Freedom of Information requests to all of London’s NHS trusts.

A spokesperson for the Patients Association commented: “Far too many patients experience longer waiting times, cancelled operations and standards of care below what they deserve.

“These figures are a concerning example of the cost of NHS PR – it is sadly patients paying the price.

“Many will ask whether this funding would be better spent on medical doctors, rather than spin doctors.”

In addition to the huge outlay on NHS trust press officers millions of pounds have been paid out in consultancy fees to private PR firms.

Tower Hamlets PCT, for instance, is alleged to have paid four PR agencies a total of £353,000 over a three-year period.

Again, according to the BBC report, NHS North West London handed one private PR firm almost £1m of taxpayers’ money for what it described as  “communications and engagement work”.

Furthermore Chelsea Children’s Hospital is said to have paid a PR agency over £10,000 to design a logo and for “branded merchandise”.

By comparison the £13m spent on PR consultancy could have funded:

600 nurses on a minimum starting salary of £21,176, or 3,250 hip replacements at cheapest estimated cost to NHS of £4,000, or potentially-life saving neuroblastoma treatment for 200 children with cancer at £65,000 each.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC investigation, the Royal Free Hospital Hampstead paid a PR company over £12,000 for advice on handling Britain’s first face transplant – despite employing no fewer than five press officers of its own, costing the trust almost £200k annually.

A senior doctor representing the campaign group London Health Emergency, said: “I find it hard to explain this sort of spending.

“Sadly the default setting of NHS managers seems to be bringing in private consultants to do jobs staff should be doing.

“It’s alarming – most people would regard it a total waste of money.”

Clearly not an opinion shared by a spokeswoman for the Royal Free spokeswoman who allegedly claimed that a 2011 survey showed its communications team was “particularly good value for money”; one wonders whether the survey was outsourced to a PR company!

Surely, we would argue, that in this age of austerity and budget cuts that it is non medical consultancy and management fees that need to be cut, not clinical services to patients. Put another way – cut the pen-pushers – not clinical services.