An artist's impression of the new Smethwick Hospital

Hospitals spent more than £5 million asking for advice from consultancy firms in the Black Country last year.

Figures released show that most hospitals increased their spending on outside help in 2008/09 compared to the previous year. The spending has come under fire from the West Midlands Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust spent £2,179,659 in 2008/09 compared with £2,133,952 in 2007/08. Some of the cash was spent on consultants working on plans for the trust’s new hospital in Smethwick.

Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust spent £1,789,853.61 in 2008/09 and £1,358,079.88 in the previous year.

Walsall Manor’s chief executive Sue James said: “Our use of external consultancy firms has increased as we work towards the opening of our new hospital.

“The £170 million redevelopment has meant a lot of hard work for our staff and in particular a number of specific service improvement projects have been initiated which sometimes needed the support of consultants who have those specialist areas of expertise.”

Some of the costs were covered by external funding.

The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust paid £1,405,087 in 2008/09 and £1,328,041. This included ground investigation work at New Cross Hospital and the development of a new website.

Kevin Stringer, director of finance at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Generally we try not to use consultancy firms. Occasionally there are things we’re doing where we don’t have the skills set and need to go to specialists.”

Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spent the least in 2008/09. Bosses paid £150,000 compared with £828,000 in 2007/08.

The higher spend was due to the hospital seeking advice for its application to become a foundation trust.

West Midlands Taxpayers Alliance spokeswoman Fiona McEvoy said: “With the number of highly-paid managers and executives in the NHS it’s astonishing these hospital trusts are still spending millions of pounds on outside consultants.

“It’s essential that the NHS attempts to source the skills internally before spending ‘ money like this.

“The public want funds spent on medicine and operations, not on lining the pocket of expensive advisors.”

By Heather Large