Hospital trusts in Merseyside have been paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for gas supplied by Russian state owned company Gazprom - prompting 'urgent discussions'.
The firm and its subsidiaries will be familiar to many from its sponsorship of football's UEFA Champions League, which was cancelled in the wake of Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine.
While the Russian parent company has been sanctioned by the government, its UK subsidiary, Gazprom Energy, was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by NHS trusts, mainly in the North West, in the past financial year to supply local hospitals with gas.
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Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted yesterday: "It’s clearly unsustainable for a humanitarian organisation like the NHS to have any commercial links whatsoever with Putin’s murderous regime.
"The small minority of trusts who retain links with Gazprom need to rethink this as a matter of urgency."
When the ECHO asked the NHS about the arrangements, it was directed to the Cabinet Office, which said "the UK is no way dependent on Russian gas supply".
Last night NHS England (NHSE) asked all trusts in the UK to confirm whether they are supplied by Gazprom by 10am this morning as it assesses risks to energy supply, according to the Health Service Journal.
NHSE's director of procurement, transformation and commercial delivery, Preeya Bailie, wrote in the message: "We are closely monitoring the ongoing situation in Ukraine and the effect on the NHS, including our supply chains. We are working with [the Department of Health and Social Care] to assess our supply resilience."
Financial data shows some of the biggest hospital trusts in Merseyside have current or recent contracts with Gazprom.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Arrowe Park Hospital, said it spent £1.75m on gas supplies from Gazprom in the 2020/21 financial year.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Liverpool, Aintree and Broadgreen hospitals, paid Gazprom £370,000 in the 2021/22 financial year.
Over the 2021 calendar year, Liverpool Women's Hospital paid Gazprom £154,666 for gas supplies, plus £79,275 in January this year.
Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Foundation Trust paid £207,477 in the 2021/22 financial year.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office told the ECHO: "We will work closely with councils and other public bodies to ensure they are able to comply with the financial and investment restrictions on Russia and will engage with them on what support they need to do this.
"The UK is in no way dependent on Russian gas supply and our highly diverse sources of gas supply and a diverse electricity mix ensures that households, businesses, and heavy industry get the energy they need."
Gazprom Energy stated: "We are a UK company that supplies 20.8% of non-domestic gas volume in Great Britain.
“We source our gas through commodity exchanges in exactly the same way as our competitors and we do not depend on gas supplies from Russia.
“We have been supplying gas in the UK since 2006 and we are confident that we will honour our contractual obligations to customers and partners with the same level of commitment as always."
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