DoH shows millions splurged on marketing

You could build a hospital with that mate

By Kable, 17th September 2010

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Airwave, McKesson and CSC are among the top 10 suppliers to the Department of Health, according to data released to Kable.

The department has become the latest to disclose spending with suppliers in the 2009-10 financial year, following Defra and Communities and Local Government.

The DoH, which published the data on its 100 largest suppliers in response to a Freedom of Information request from Kable.co.uk's sister site SmartHealthcare.com, said that its largest supplier was the Central Office of Information, through which it purchases communications and marketing services. This is set to change, following the new government's clampdown on such spending.

The data showed that the second largest supplier to the department was Airwave, which provides a communications network, hardware and services for the UK's emergency services. It received £59.4m from the department for providing the Airwave service to England's ambulance trusts. On 12 August, similar figures from Communities and Local Government showed that department spent £69.9m with Airwave in 2009-10 on behalf of England's fire services.

The list of suppliers also includes McKesson, the third largest, receiving £49.8m and CSC, the ninth, getting £20.2m. Figures published last week by SmartHealthcare.com showed both also appeared on the supplier list for NHS Connecting for Health (CfH), England's health services IT organisation, although McKesson was only paid £780,000.

CSC was CfH's second largest supplier in 2009-10, receiving £213.2m. The DoH said that the two supplier lists may include some overlapping spending.

The department also revealed spending of £26.8m with six business services firms, led by McKinsey, which received £9.2m in 2009-10.

This article was originally published at Kable.

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