WIREDGOV

Excessive spending on management consultants advising on the  controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) to reconfigure the NHS was branded as ‘a gravy train that is completely out of control’ by Unite, the union, today (Tuesday 21 March).

Unite was commenting on Press Association revelations that health bosses had spent at least £17.6m on advice to formulate the STPs by top management consultancy firms, such as KPMG, McKinsey and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).  There are 44 STPs across England.

Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said: “These findings reveal a management consultancy gravy train that is completely out of control, at a time when frontline services, such as A&E departments, are stretched to breaking point.

“Unite has been raising the alarm since last year that the highly secretive STPs in England are a Trojan Horse designed to push through an agenda of cuts and privatisation of NHS services. ……

“What the public wants is more doctors, nurses and paramedics, not management ‘whizz kids’ brandishing flip charts and PowerPoint presentations.

“Unite will be campaigning throughout 2017 to raise awareness as to the real impact for people in their local communities and the adverse impact on much-valued NHS services, such as the possible closure of A&E units.”  

Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, has been at the forefront of exposing the agenda behind STPs.

Last month, Unite highlighted expensive ‘guerrilla marketing’ tactics to be used to persuade people in Yorkshire, Humber and north Lincolnshire that ‘the noise’ about NHS cuts needs to be ‘turned down’.

Marketing and communications specialists  were asked ‘to express an interest’ in the £10,000 nine-month contract  to run from next month for the Humber, Coast and Vale Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).

Notes to editors:

For more information please contact Unite senior communications officer Shaun Noble on 020 3371 2060 or 07768 693940.

Email: shaun.noble@unitetheunion.org