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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

NHS hospital trusts are using cash from advertisements by personal injury lawyers to pay for staff overtime and get basic supplies, it is claimed.
Hundreds of hospitals get their patient information leaflets, which include the adverts for such services, through companies such as BOE Publishing and Pro-Vision.
A Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation leaflet featuring a Freeclaim advert
Funds generated through the scheme have reportedly been used to pay staff overtime and buy heart monitors.
According to BBC Radio 4's You And Yours, Pro-Vision said its "royalty" payments to NHS trusts vary from a few thousand pounds per annum up to £200,000.

"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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"However, this form of advertising is a matter for individual trusts."

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