NHS chiefs and Whitehall officials enjoyed taxpayer-funded "away day" at one of Britain's must luxurious hotels as the UK economy slid into recession.

NHS chiefs enjoy taxpayer-funded away day at luxury hotel as recession bites
article in the Telegraph

Extract 1:

"As private firms cut costs and laid off workers, nine senior managers from the NHS and the Department of health spent two days at the Great Fosters hotel near Egham, Surrey.

Great Fosters is a moated Elizabethan house with 38 rooms costing an average of £200 a night.

The Departmental Board of the Department of Health - which includes the NHS chief executive and the chief medical officer - were there on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th of September this year."

Extract 2:

"Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is totally wasteful for NHS executives to live a life of luxury at taxpayers' expense. This money was meant to improve the experience of people stuck in crowded hospital wards, not to house bureaucrats in top notch hotels. It is an outrage that while everyone else tightens their belts, the public sector just keeps on spending.""

Millions of pounds have been wasted on NHS schemes which have not treated any patients, the Govt's own figures reveal, the Sunday Telegraph reports

Millions wasted by NHS on clinics which never opened their doors
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract 1:

"Almost £20 million has been spent on contracts which were axed last year soon after a shift in policy following the appointment of Alan Johnson as health secretary.

Close to £7 million was spent by the Department of Health (DoH) on plans to build clinics to perform basic operations and tests which were later abandoned.

A further £12.5 million was paid to private firms, after negotiations for other clinics were halted, or centres closed just months after contracts begun.

Doctors and opposition politicians described the revelations, buried in the DoH's annual accounts, as a "scandalous" waste of taxpayers money which should have been spent treating patients."

Extract 2:

"Earlier investigations by Health Service Journal have revealed that close to £220 million may have been wasted among existing private centres who were paid "block" rates by the NHS, regardless of how many patients they treated.

The latest revelations about wastage among units which did not even open their doors shocked experts.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "This is yet another example of taxpayers being left with the bill for gross mismanagement in the NHS.""

The Department of Health is the pits in so many ways, but you've got to admit that it's absolutely ace at wasting money...)o:

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