CARILLION IN NHS ‘RIP-OFF’
Hospitals paid firm millions
FAILED construction firm Carillion charged NHS hospitals millions for changing light bulbs and refilling soap dispensers.
The company, which went bust last month, billed one hospital
£70 to swap a bulb. Carillion is also said to have charged £20 to refill a single hand sanitiser or soap dispenser on a hospital ward. Some big hospitals have up to 50 wards, each with up to
70 dispensers.
As a result they would have paid around £3.64million a year to have the dispensers filled once a week.
Up to 14 hospital trusts are known to have had contracts with Carillion, under which the company was responsible for cleaning, maintenance and catering services.
Details of costs were revealed by an anonymous hospital manager in a letter published on the website NHS Newsday. He wrote: “Two examples of what happens with Carillion sub-contracts in hospitals which landed on my lap this week. Firstly, in one hospital the contractor for the lighting are the only people allowed to change light bulbs. The cost charged to the hospital was £70.
“The cost of the light bulb is no more than £5 and the time it takes is around five minutes, so the employee is being paid
£10 an hour and the labour charge would be 80p. That means the cost of this is £5.80. What is the £64.20 paying for?
“In another example the only people allowed to replenish the hand wash (onwards) are the contractors. Some wards may have
70 such dispensers as infection prevention is very important.
“It would take less than an hour to replenish every dispenser on a ward and the handwash costs around a pound, so £10 labour and £70 for the sanitiser –
£80 in total. Contractor invoices £20 per dispenser. That is a total of £1,400. Where does the £1,330 go?” An NHS insider said: “This is money which could be spent on operations, staff and reducing waiting times. Instead it was being used to line the pockets of a group of fat cats making money out of the NHS.” Business Secretary Greg Clark yesterday announced contractors hit by the firm’s collapse can apply for Government-backed loans under a £100m support scheme.