This morning’s Western Mail reports that Health minister Edwina Hart has been accused of wasting more than £2m by rejecting advice from the Wales Audit Office and insisting on reorganising the NHS in the middle of a financial year.
They say that an NHS audit source has revealed that because the recent reorganisation occurred six months into the current financial year, full audits for 2009-10 will have to be undertaken of the old bodies, which have now been scrapped, as well as of the new LHBs.
The source told us: “My understanding is that the minister’s insistence on a mid-financial year start for the new LHBs has meant that the external auditors – the Wales Audit Office – will have to carry out two audits at a vast extra cost of more than £2m, which has to come out of the NHS budget.
“A commencement date for the new LHBs next April would have obviated this unnecessary spend, but not suited the minister’s leadership bid. So front line services will have to suffer. I understand that the WAO issued many warnings to this effect.”
The Western Mail put this scenario to the WAO and it was not denied.
Welsh Liberal Democrat health spokesman Peter Black said: “Every million pounds misspent is money this government could be spending on front line health services, or cash-strapped post-16 education. For this reason, the minister must assure taxpayers that any benefits reorganising quickly will bring are not outweighed by the costs involved in fast-tracking the process.”
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