NHS spends £10 million on 175 consulting firms

The English public healthcare organisation, the National Health Service (NHS), has over the past financial year spent more than £10 million on external consultants.

Noteworthy is that as many as 175 different consulting firms and freelancers were hired. Despite the large variety of suppliers, six consulting firms received more than 60% of total revenues. This is evident from an analysis by Consultancy.uk based on figures released by the NHS.

More than €6 million to six consulting firms

KPMG claimed nearly 50% of revenue, followed by PwC, PA Consulting Group, Ernst & Young, McKinsey and Deloitte Consulting.

More than half to organisation and change management

The data, provided following a freedom of information request from politicians, reveals that the NHS spent £5.5 million (56%) on “organisation and change management consultancy”. 18% was spent on project management, 11% on Legal, 8% on Marketing & Communication. Strategy consulting accounted for less than 0.5%.

The publication of the figures and the high expenditure has caused a lot of criticism in the English politics. Health secretary Andrew Lansley said in a response that the NHS will halve its spending on consulting firms in the coming year.