The country’s biggest accountancy firms have made at least £17.6m to date helping the NHS draw up plans that will lead to the closure or downgrade of hospitals. KPMG, McKinsey and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are among the big earners from health bosses paying management consultants to draw up the strategies, which earmark cuts to departments and some A&Es.
STPs have been created in 44 regions in a bid to revolutionise services while saving money in the face of an expected £900m NHS deficit this year. A Kings Fund report recently revealed that such extensive use of private management companies has caused disquiet among senior health service clinicians and executives. In some cases, managers felt pressured to increase their spend on the private companies..
The latest figures show £17,674,998 has been spent so far, though the final bill is likely to be far higher. Some £4,158,311 has been spent on management consultants to create the STP, including £1,807,340 to PwC for “programme support”. A further £477,715 was paid to PwC for “specialist commissioning work”, while Sirius received £50,399 for creating a “digital roadmap”.
KPMG was paid more than £1.2 million in total, according to the data, including £472,092 from Norfolk and Waveney STP bosses, £783,810 in Staffordshire and £26,393 in Hertfordshire for “cost modelling”.
Full story in iNews, The Essential Daily Briefing, on 21 March 2017
