Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley has branded the $450,000 bill paid to hospital consultants a waste of money.

He said three of the four major recommendations, as revealed in written answers in Parliament by Health Minister Patrice Minors on Friday, were obvious.

And he said the fourth, that previous CEO Stephanie Reid should be dismissed, contradicted the official explanation at the time that she had not been fired.

She was given a year's extension to her contract in November 2002 but left in May this year.

At the time Bermuda Hospitals Board chairman Jonathan Brewin said the hospital needed financial restructuring and, as the new financial year had started, it made sense to start with a new team.

But yesterday Mr. Dunkley said: "Government and the Bermuda Hospitals Board made it quite clear when Mrs. Reid departed that she wasn't dismissed."

He wanted to know how much it had cost Government to fire Mrs. Reid, if that had been the case.

The other recommendations by Kurron Shares of America were that a succession plan be set up for the next CEO, that improvement be made to the physical plant and that the role of the Human Resource Department be reviewed.

"I don't think you need to pay close to half a million dollars to tell us that. It was a wasted expense and unbudgeted expense."

When Kurron had been brought in Government had not said how much the exercise would cost said Mr. Dunkley, who added that Kurron had a chequered record.

He said that the hospital had already set up a succession plan before Kurron arrived because Patrice Dill had been named as the new boss. That decision was then delayed when Kurron arrived and Joan Dillas-Wright was then appointed instead.

BHB had said Ms Dill had withdrawn her application and she was instead appointed to the newly-created post of Director of St. Brendan's Hospital.

Mr. Dunkley said: "We know the physical plant is falling apart and the human resource department has had problems."

He said the department had problems recruiting qualified staff for the finance department while the engineering department had suffered a big turnover of staff.

Staff had been reluctant to be interviewed by Kurron during their review because of concern over the group's track record of making savings by firing staff.