HEALTH bosses from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have spent more than £500,000 on strategies that could lead to the closure or downgrading of the area’s hospitals.

The Press Association used the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to ask clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) how much has been spent on management consultants to formulate the plans.

In Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, £576,736 was spent – making it one of the top ten spending regions.

The consultants were tasked with formulating sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) in a bid to revolutionise services while saving money in the face of an expected £900 million NHS deficit this year.

One firm, Deloitte, received £472,601 from Hampshire STP bosses for “programme management and development”.

A further £63,960 was paid to MBI Health Consulting for “project management” work while MJMPR Consulting received £26,675 for “communications” work.

Consilium was paid £13,500 for “co-ordination and development” work.

Dr Mark Porter, pictured, chairman of the British Medical Association’s council, said: “It is outrageous that so much vital resources are being handed to consultancy firms for their part in delivering STPs which, ultimately, may never come to fruition.

“These figures are especially concerning given that everyone can see a huge crisis unfolding within our health service.

“The NHS is at breaking point, with record numbers of trusts and GP practices raising the alarm to say they already can’t cope.

“NHS Improvement has already admitted that it will pick and choose the parts of the plans it can actually put into action, which leads me to question whether all of this money handed out to private companies will simply be completely wasted.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “It may occasionally make sense to use outside experts to help advise local hospitals on where to build new facilities and how to release money from old buildings, but the main focus has to be on practical, common-sense changes in areas that really matter to patients, such as making it easier to see a GP and speeding up cancer diagnosis.”

When asked how much each CCG in Hampshire and Isle of Wight paid to one or more of the four firms, a spokeswoman for Hampshire and Isle of Wight STP said: “Some of the funds were committed centrally from NHS England with the remainder being spilt between the Trusts and CCGs within Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”

When asked what services the CCGs paid for, the spokeswoman said: “The additional resource helped us to move at pace working closely with our doctors and nurses and gathering their input on the possibilities for the future of health in our area.

“In turn, this has enabled us to create detailed proposals for a sustainable health and care system for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”