£1.24m spent in search of savings

THE Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, has defended paying out £1.24m to management consultants in three months.

The trust paid consultancy firm Ernst and Young £100,000 in December £765,000 in March, and £376,000 in April, a total of £1,241,000.

The trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and North Manchester, is looking for savings of £45m this financial year.

Rochdale councillor Jean Ashworth, who is campaigning against cuts to services at Rochdale Infirmary, branded the amount “disgraceful” and called for an independent investigator.

But a Trust spokesman said extra support and skills were needed to find ways of transforming services and making savings.

“Put simply, it is sometimes necessary to spend up-front to make larger savings in the long-term,” he said

“Using management consultants means we can get the extra support and skills we need without the added cost of hiring additional permanent staff.”