| By :
Martin Hofschroer
The National Health Service (NHS) should continue to pay for performance improvement consulting services despite looming budget cuts. Alan Leaman responded in the Guardian to health secretary Andrew Lansley's comments regarding the NHS budget by arguing that the healthcare organisation should maintain their spending on management consultants. The chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association criticised Mr Lansley statement that "health trusts spent more than £300 million on management consultants last year". Mr Leaman claimed that the figure of £300 million was inaccurate because charges for legal and financial advice, architect fees and PR support were included in the final total. The figure of £300 million would only represent 0.3 per cent of the NHS' £100 billion budget and would still constitute good value for money because it is a fraction of what private sector companies spend on performance improvement consulting services. Mr Leaman said that management consultants have helped regional NHS trusts to reduce waiting times from GP referral to hospital treatment and improve records for infection control. He said: "Modern management consultancy is about far more than writing reports with good recommendations. Nor is it the same as interim management or staff substitution, which is often controversial. "The real scandal would be if Lansley's approach prevented the NHS from accessing a world-class source of performance improvement and cost control." Mr Leaman argued that it is worthwhile for any organisation to invest in consultants because they provide a valuable perspective, focus and discipline, which cannot be generated by in-house staff. Unison has previously criticised the NHS by claiming that it's employees suffered from a culture of unpaid overtime as staff were expected to work for longer than contractually agreed without extra pay. Research by Merchant Gourmet supported this claim as it found that the average employee works for five hours a week more than their contractual hours, which results in an extra 33 working days a year or four more work years during their life. Merchant Gourmet's Clive Moxham said: ''Brits are working harder than ever. Overtime has become part of our daily routine and working through breaks is commonplace so by the time we've travelled home and sat down we're exhausted." Spending almost 12 hours a day in 'work mode' was discovered to have detrimental effects on employee health so managers were urged to create more time in the day where workers can relax and recharge their batteries.
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