Game keepers become poachers

Last Sunday's Sunday Telegraph revealed a picture of cronyism and waste in the NHS.

The Health Service makes frequent and regular use of consultants, especially in areas like IT management and technology. Some of the consultants are paid up to £2,000 per day.

The figures run to many millions, for instance 111 consulting contracts in 2007-08 cost £132 million. In the three years from 2005-06 the department and its agencies for IT and Purchasing and Supply spent £470 million on management consultants.

The situation is more worrying, given the number of Labour peers, former civil servants and even former ministers who are in the employ of many of the companies involved. Some have spoken of an ever faster revolving door between government and its favourite consultants.

Some are unashamedly lobbying companies, although former officials and MPs are forbidden to be involved for a few months after yielding their positions.

Many doctors and nurses, observing what is going on and the waste involved, tend to estimate what the cost is to NHS patients, - 60,000 hip operations or annual salaries of 22,000 nurses.

At the moment hospitals collectively have been told to plan for £15 billion of efficiency savings. It is to be hoped that the department and ministry also constrain themselves as never before.