NHS paying consultant £2k a day... to cut costs

And he can even work from his villa in Spain!

Cash-strapped health chiefs are paying a private consultant almost £2,000 a day to work on cutting costs at an Nhs hospital.

Management expert philip Burns is set to pocket more than £350,000 over just nine months after being brought in to a troubled health board in the Labour-run Welsh Nhs.

and Mr Burns’s contract as ‘recovery director’ even allows him to work from his villa in Marbella one day a week.

he was appointed by the Betsi Cadwaladr University health Board in North Wales, which has been in special measures for more than four years. But he will earn more than the health board’s chief executive and even the Welsh government’s health minister during his nine-month tenure.

One proposed saving under Mr Burns’s leadership is for nurses to have unpaid breaks during 12and-a-half-hour shifts.

his huge wage was only revealed after a Freedom of Information request to the board by plaid

Cymru Welsh assembly member Llyr Gruffydd.

Mr Gruffydd pointed out that the suggestion of restructuring nurses’ timetables and reducing their pay will save an estimated £25,000 a month – while Mr Burns is earning £40,000 a month.

he added: ‘It beggars belief that the board have to resort to overpaid consultants to do this work. It also begs the question about why senior managers in the health board can’t find savings without putting additional pressure on overstretched nursing staff.

‘[the board] has a £42million deficit and one in nine of its nursing posts is vacant. It’s paying a fortune on agency nursing costs because it’s not being run well because senior management can’t recruit or retain staff. If we’re having to see costly consultants come in to run the show, then it suggests that senior management isn’t doing its job. Given that the health board is under the direct control of the Welsh government, the buck stops with them.’

a spokesman for Betsi Cadwaladr

University health Board said: ‘Interim staff have been appointed in accordance with our standing financial instructions. appointing a recovery director was a recommendation from the National assembly’s public accounts Committee, who called for more resources to be devoted to turnaround action. there is a market rate for this level of expertise and that is what we are paying.’

darren Millar, Conservative assembly member for Clwyd West, said: ‘this is an utter disgrace. Instead of forking out these obscene pay packets Betsi Cadwaladr should be spending this cash on improving patient care and addressing unacceptable waiting lists and emergency department performance.’

Fellow tory Janet Finch-saunders, member for aberconwy, demanded that Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, resign over the appointment.

she added: ‘[the board] being in special measures has so far cost £83million, just think what that would do for waiting lists. I’m overwhelmed with complaints from people clamouring for treatment. Yet the board is prepared to spend a huge amount of cash on a management consultant.’

‘Unacceptable waiting lists’