NHS hospitals using cash from £200,000 deals with ‘no win no fee’ lawyers to pay for staff overtime and basic supplies
A company claimed some cash-strapped hospitals have used royalty payments from the adverts to buy new heart monitors
"We know two trusts have used this money to pay months of overdue overtime," the organisation told the .
"In one case, an A&E department which only had three heart monitors used the money we provided to buy eight new ones."
Blackpool-based BOE Publishing has contracts with hospital across the UK including in the city.
BOE told the programme that it donates money and equipment to many of the hospitals it supplies.
RELATED STORIES
Recent equipment top-ups include uniforms and catering trolleys, the BBC reported.
These leaflets provide many NHS organisations with patient advice cards on subjects such as caring for head injuries, how to use crutches and advice on burns and scalds.
In many cases, the leaflets are provided for free with the provision that the companies can place personal injury advertisements on the reverse.
Commons Health Select Committee Chairwoman Dr Sarah Wollaston told the BBC: "This process is encouraging people to make a claim they they might not otherwise have done."
In 2012 the former Chief Executive of NHS England, Sir David Nicholson, wrote to NHS trust leaders that legal adverts in hospitals could "undermine the relationship between NHS staff and their patients and therefore should not be supported".
Department of Health guidelines state: "NHS bodies should not consider advertising personal injury or claims management services.
"However, this form of advertising is a matter for individual trusts."