More than £1 million of taxpayers money has been forked out on management consultants for the NHS in the Bradford area in only 27 months.

The Telegraph & Argus can reveal there has been a near 100 per cent increase in the cost for the external advisers from £441,549 in 2004/05 to £812,129 in 2005/06.

Information obtained by Conservative MP Grant Shapps under the Freedom of Information Act details how much had been spent in 2004/05, 2005/06 and latest data available for a three-month period in 2006/07.

The figure is also estimated for the 2006/07 year - by multiplying the three month figure by four.

Of the four Primary Care Trusts which serve the area, Airedale was the biggest spenders with a staggering £276,514 for the 27-month period.

If health chiefs keep spending at the same rate as the first three months of the financial year 2006/07 - the figure is estimated to reach £337,318 for the three years.

North Bradford spent £141,917 in the 27 months period with an estimated total cost of £164,372.

Figures show Bradford City PCT and Bradford South and West PCT have not yet declared the amount they paid out - meaning the aggregate total could be much higher.

But it was Bradford Teaching Hospital Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, which forked out the most, spending £947,000 from 2004/05 to the first three months of 2006/07.

That means an estimate on costs for the consultants stands at £1,199,900 for the three-year period.

Year-on-year spending on the advisers has increased in the district with the biggest hike seen by North Bradford PCT from a relatively modest £24,311 in 2004/05 to £110,121 in 2005/06.

A spokesman for the Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trusts, which will merge from October 1, said: "In the very few cases where external management consultants have been used it has been for a specific role with very clear objectives and measurable results.

"We are always looking for ways to do things better and more efficiently and sometimes need to employ the help of people with particular skills."

No-one at Bradford Hospitals Trust was available to comment.

Mr Shapps said: "We're in a ludicrous situation whereby NHS Trusts battling monumental deficits are simultaneously hiring external management consultants and slashing frontline NHS jobs."

Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants' committee, said the NHS should invest in decent staff managers "rather than throwing money at costly outsiders."

e-mail: newsdesk @bradford.newsquest.co.uk