DoH spent £154m through communications agency

The department indicated that the agency's top position in its list of suppliers was due its status as a clearing house for purchasing communications and marketing services, including printing, media planning and buying for health campaigns and advice. "Whilst technically one supplier, the COI is a centralised procurement function that aims to achieve best value for government by consolidating departmental spend on a wide range of services," it said in a Freedom of Information response to SmartHealthcare.com. The response included the 100 largest suppliers to the Department of Health by value . As well as the £154m spent through COI in 2009-10, it also spent £8.8m with research firm Ipsos Mori and £1.1m with communications group Bell Pottinger. The levels of spending on marketing and communications look set to change dramatically in the current financial year, however. "On 24 May 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out new plans to achieve £6.2bn of net savings," the department added. "As part of that, the government has implemented an immediate freeze on new communications, with only minor exceptions." The data showed that 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 included IT firms such as McKesson, the third largest, receiving £49.8m and CSC, the ninth, getting £20.2m. Figures published last week by SmartHealthcare.com showed both appearing 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 Department of Health said that the two supplier lists may include some overlapping spending. Healthy income: the Department of Health's top suppliers List of the department's top 100 suppliers News: McKinsey leads DoH's consultancy roster