Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was diverted from patient care at Stracathro Hospital, health campaigners have discovered.
The cash went to consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers for work in setting up the contract for NHS patients to be treated by a private firm at the hospital and for two reviews of that contract.
The creation of the Scottish Regional Treatment Centre (SRTC) at Stracathro in 2007 was shrouded in commercial confidentiality and campaigners could not get answers. But now, in a political climate where privatising services has been abandoned and the SRTC’s functions are returned to the NHS, answers have been forthcoming.
Carnoustie man Ron Macdonald, a former nurse who has pursued answers with Dr John Evans, said a recent ruling by information commissioner Kevin Dunion had come up with the “surprising” revelation of the amount of money that went to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
At the beginning of last year NHS Tayside took over the running of the SRTC. The centre was established at Stracathro in an £18 million deal with private firm Netcare and was the first independent centre of its type in Scotland.
NHS patients from Tayside, Fife and Grampian were all sent to the centre and health bosses have acknowledged the unit was key to achieving waiting time targets. But there was always controversy around what was then the Scottish Executive giving cash to NHS Tayside to pay a private firm to do the work instead of using the cash for “in-house” services.
Attempts to follow the paper trail were thwarted during the three years of the contract but, after Mr Dunion’s intervention, information has been made available by NHS Tayside to the campaigners. It shows that fees paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers for work done in setting up the contract for private medicine at Stracathro and for two contract reviews totalled £854,016.
Mr Macdonald said, “The whole thing was shrouded under the umbrella of commercial confidentiality. At the time of the contract there was a reluctance for openness and transparency. It took determined efforts under freedom of information to get information about what was happening to taxpayers’ money.”
He added, “It came as something of a surprise to me to learn that almost £1 million was paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers. That could have bought more operations.
“It could have been used for cancer research. It could have been used for patient care.”
He believes the political climate and the commercial contract “constrained” NHS Tayside’s stated wish to be open and transparent.
Mr Macdonald said, “There was a drive from the government at that time to push privatisation or increase privatisation within the NHS. Strings were bring pulled from Edinburgh.
“The secrecy when asking about things was worrying. It has taken the information commissioner to give a ruling which opened the gates in terms of NHS Tayside being willing to give us the information we sought.”
He added, “It is very pleasing that, at long last, the health board has got back to its original statement of being open and transparent. I feel the board’s hand was being forced and they were constrained by the political climate at the time.”
An NHS Tayside spokeswoman said, “The contract was between PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Scottish Government.”