Paul Beresford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Beresford on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on external consultants at (a) Epsom Hospital, (b) East Surrey Hospital and (c) The Royal Surrey County Hospital respectively over the last five years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The requested information is not held centrally.
The available information is provided in the table below.
The Department holds expenditure data for National Health Service trusts as part of the year end accounts consolidation process. The data is held for the trust which a hospital belongs to rather than for individual hospitals.
External Consultant Spend by Trust (2011/12-2015/16)
|
Financial Year |
Epsom and St Helier University (£000) |
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (£000) |
Royal Surrey County NHS Foundation Trust (£000) |
|
2011/12 |
2,836 |
881 |
2,067 |
|
2012/13 |
1,525 |
1,036 |
1,216 |
|
2013/14 |
1,289 |
509 |
2,288 |
|
2014/15 |
1,215 |
502 |
3,165 |
|
2015/16 |
1,784 |
56 |
2,537 |
Source: Department of Health Accounts and NHS Improvement
Notes:
1. This information is based on the Cabinet Office definition of “Consultancy Services” (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/405538/6.1_Cons_definitions.pdf):
“Assistance provided by consultancy services provided outside the ’business-as-usual’ environment when in-house skills are not available and will be of no essential consequence and time-limited. Consultancy may include the identification of options with recommendations, or assistance with (but not delivery of) the implementation of solutions.”
This is not the same as spend on external medical consultants; which would have to be obtained from trusts/foundation trusts directly.
2. This guidance is issued to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts as part of the Department’s Group Accounting Manual, and can be seen on pages 160/161 of that document.
