Hodge: Current NHS spending is unacceptable

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons’ public accounts committee, comments on the National Audit Office’s report on the procurement of consumables by NHS trusts:

“It is simply unacceptable that so many hospital trusts are currently paying more than they need for basic supplies.

“Even for some of the commonest items, the price hospitals pay varies by more than 100%. Too much purchasing is still done through multiple, low-value orders, which incur high admin costs.

“And the range of similar products that trusts buy is sometimes so wide as to appear ridiculous: how can it be, for instance, that while one trust does its work with just 13 different types of surgical glove, another requires 177? These are well-known recipes for poor value for money that really ought to have been addressed by now.”