Here’s what Ian Powell reported last week on expenditure on consultants to establish Te Whata Ora by the previous government:
In an email to me, a former DHB chief executive commented on the amount spent on consultants:
That is a total spend of $332.8m over just 4 years. Much of the rationale for this spend has been on “supporting change and transformation work resulting from the health reforms”.
It does beg the question about accountability and liability for the advice and impact of the changes on the community. Health reforms where there was no operating model developed/delivered, a rapid degradation of health services, primary care isolated, hospitals overloaded, mental health services in disarray a workforce crisis that continues to grow and huge increases in expenditure.
In most other industries this would be called a complete failure and people would be held accountable. As a country we are being taken for an absolute ride by the “all care no responsibility” approach by the big consultancy firms. If they were adding so much value then one would think that this country would be in a wonderful place. [emphasis added]
The overwhelming experience of the health system has been that the value of business consultants in the design, configuration and delivery of health systems has been underwhelming at least; costs far exceeded benefits.
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