South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has said the new contract for NHS consultants was so badly drafted it should not have been put on the table, as a new report finds that the costs of the pay deal were underestimated by £150 million.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report on the NHS consultants’ contract.

The report finds that the Department of Health did not check its financial assumptions while drafting the contract nor did it make use of all available data on consultants’ workload. As a result, the contract cost the NHS £715 million, some £150 million more than expected.

Mr Bacon said today: “The Department of Health rushed this deal through without a clear understanding of the work consultants actually do.  As a result, this contract cost £150 million more than planned”. 

“No-one can really blame consultants for taking a good deal when it was offered to them.  This contract was so badly drafted that the Department of Health should never have allowed it to be put on the table in the first place”.

22 November 2007

See also:
PAC REPORT: A new contract for NHS Consultants in England