Ambulance service bosses spend £10,000 on survey that asks ‘How cool was Hitler?’

Ambulance service chiefs spent £10,000 on a questionnaire for staff which asked them to rate how ‘cool’ Hitler was.

The survey, which appeared in a newsletter for West Midlands Ambulance Service staff, is part of a project to find out what makes a good boss.

It bizarrely asked staff to rate how ‘cool’ different leaders were including Sir Richard Branson, Gordon Brown, Adolf Hitler, Fabio Cappello and their own chief executive Ian Cummings.

Titled ‘Making Leadership Cool; How Do Emerging Leaders Want to be Supported and Managed’, it is part of a year-long project funded by the taxpayer.

Questionnaire: The leadership survey which was sent to staff asked if they thought Hitler was ‘cool’

Health chiefs forked out £10,000 to fund the project after two paramedics at West Midlands Ambulance Service applied for a bursary to carry out the survey.

It was circulated to all 3,300 workers at West Midlands Ambulance Service at the end of last month.

Health chiefs will use the results – which form part of a year-long study – to develop a ‘Leadership Development Programme’ to be published next April.

Staff were asked how ‘cool’ they thought various people were on a scale of 1-5 – including Adolf Hitler.

They were also asked if being gay, funny or black made a leader cool.

Workers and campaign groups have slammed the scheme for wasting money.

One former ambulance worker, who has resigned from the service, has set up a website with his own survey, which asks: ‘How cool is it for the NHS to spend £10,000 on finding out how cool Hitler is?’

Enlarge   How cool is Hitler? A disgruntled former employee of the West Midlands Ambulance Service has hit out at the £10,000 project, which includes a survey that asks how ‘cool’ different leaders were

Steve Jetley, 54, of Shrewsbury, said many emergency crew members felt the money ‘would have been far better spent providing improved and more modern equipment (like pelvic splints instead of triangular bandages), improved training or even replacing aging ambulances with over 250,000 miles on the clock that are slow and unreliable.’

Mr Jetley, who campaigned to save an emergency control centre in Shropshire after it was axed because of budget cuts, has set up  http://www.howcoolishitler.net in protest at the survey.

Another disgruntled worker wrote on the Unison union website: ‘Frontline staff are being asked to shop around for cheaper fuel, go out in vehicles with 180,000 miles on the clock, and wear cheap uniforms.

‘I think the least we deserve is an apology for the insult to our intelligence’

Fiona McEvoy, for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that the survey was a waste of much-needed cash.

‘This is an utterly ridiculous waste of taxpayers’ money. It’s pretty obvious what people are going to think of Hitler, and has nothing to do with the ambulance service at all.

‘This whole survey is absurd. Taxpayers don’t care if public sector managers are cool, they just want a decent service.’

The ambulance trust has defended the year-long study, which is being carried out by two members of the service with a £10,000 bursary from the regional strategic authority.

It said: ‘The project is important in identifying the key characteristics of good leadership, to allow the organisation and the wider NHS to be more efficient and effective which, in turn, will have a direct and positive impact on improving patient care.

‘The project sought to discuss different styles of leadership and the characteristics of leadership to help staff at all levels develop their career.

‘Staff were asked to look at different leadership styles and one of those was a dictatorial style.

‘Adolf Hitler’s style galvanised a country into terrible things but it did galvanise a country. Perhaps in hindsight a better example could have been used.’