THE Government is spending £250,000 of taxpayer cash to hear people’s views on the NHS.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week began a roadshow across Britain in his bid to have a “national conversation”.
Members of the public are offered £175 bungs to attend, and receive travel expenses and lunch.
An internal department estimate says the 14 session programme will cost about £250,000.
And a civil service memo suggests not sharing the final figure widely.
Shadow Health Secretary Ed Argar said: “This colossal waste of money will not hide that Labour has no plan for the NHS.”
The Department of Health said: “We need to speak to people across the country.
“People attending these events are giving up a whole day to perform a public service.”
Last week, a Sun on Sunday investigation revealed the NHS is still spending millions of pounds on politically correct, non-frontline services despite Labour’s pledge to reform our ailing health service.
We identified costly projects in place across the UK since Labour came to power, including in hospitals the Care Quality Commission said need to improve.
It comes despite a previously announced clampdown on such spending.
Streeting revealed last week that, in the first three months of this financial year, NHS trusts had racked up budget deficits of £2billion.
Since the General Election in July, there have been a number of jobs advertised across the country for people and diversity roles.
Yet critics argue patients would rather see frontline staff employed.
