The head of a cost-cutting programme revealed that eight NHS trusts are routinely paying 19 different sums for the same pacemaker – a discrepancy that is wasting up to £750 a time.
According to John Neilson, managing director of NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), managers sitting just a few feet away from each other in the same trust could be paying different prices for supplies such as stationery and surgical instruments.
He said, “It’s scary. We actually have multiple prices being paid for the same item in the same trust, in the same month…They haven’t got their purchasing under control at all.” NHS SBS is a public-private partnership which is half-owned by the Government, which was formed in 2005 to outsource back-office functions such as accounting and payroll. The NHS SBS monitors the finances of a third of NHS trusts, covering £31 billion of annual spending.
Mr. Neilson’s company compiled a database of NHS spending and showed that about 12 per cent of its purchasing budget is being wasted by staff overpaying for key items. About £12 billion is spent on health service equipment each year, and the NHS has been ordered to save up to £20bn through efficiencies by 2014.
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