I wrote a piecefor the Daily Mail Online today about the Department of Health spending a staggering £487 million on management consultants over the last five years. But this is small beer compared to the spending on consultants by the NHS - which according to a report from the Royal College of Nursing is £350 million a year.
This reminded me that Department of Health spending and NHS spending are not quite the same. This helpful atlas by The Guardian shows that the Department of Health is spending £109.4 billion this year. But it is apparently only passing on £94.5 billion to the NHS. There one a half billion on Personal Social Services. There is also £13.4 billion on NHS pensions. There is £170 million that goes to the Health Protection Agency which appears as a separate entity to either the NHS or the Department of Health.
Apart from the management cconsultants the Department of Health also spends £632 million on Quangos (according to the Government narrow definition of a Quango.) Then how much money is being spent b the Department of Health on spin doctors, target setters and data crunchers? The Conservative transparency rules mean we shall soon know. Yet surely this will mean a Cameron Government will be pen to challenge on one of its sending plans. I can understand the reasons why the Conservatives are pledged to ringfence NHS spending. But why extend this to health spending generally? Why should Department of Health spending be ringfenced.
