NHS external consultants ‘not good value’

MILLIONS OF pounds spent on management consultants by NHS trusts could be making the health service less efficient, a new study has found.

Despite being hired to help hospitals cut costs, the use of external consultants seems to be having the reverse effect, researchers said.

They examined data from 120 hospital trusts in England between 2009-10 and 2012-13 and found that an average of £1.2m a year was spent on consultants per trust.

The study, published in the journal Policy and Politics, shows how the spending almost doubled, from £313m in 2010 to £640m in 2014.

But the trusts which had improvements in efficiency as a result were the exception, not the norm.

Andrew Sturdy, professor in management at the University of Bristol, said: “Our research has clearly shown that management consultants are not only failing to improve efficiency in the NHS but, in most cases, making the situation worse. Data shows that it’s a system-wide problem. This is money which, many argue, could be better spent on medical services or internal management expertise.”

Experts from the universities of Bristol, Seville and Warwick Business School linked the hospital trust data to two standardised indicators of efficiency.

They said spending on consultants was associated with inefficiency equivalent to an average annual loss of £10,600 a year for each hospital trust.

But that did not take into account the money spent on consulting, which ranged from zero to £5.6m per year.

An NHS Improvement spokesman said: “We are working with all trusts on reducing their costs, which includes spending less on management consultants, and have had some success.

“Since 2013, trusts have reduced their spending on management consultants by £150m, which is a significant improvement on the past.

“In future, we will continue to work with trusts on keeping their consultancy spending to a minimum, and on commissioning it better.”