An open letter to NHS bosses in the West Midlands claims that spending £10,000 on a research project to find out how what makes leaders “cool” is morally and ethically wrong.

The letter has been written by former Shrewsbury ambulance worker Steve Jetley who set up a website howcoolishitler.net to expose what he feels is an appalling waste of NHS money and give people the chance to have their say .

The project is being carried out by two members of staff at the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) with a £10,000 bursary from the regional strategic health authority.

They asked service colleagues in a questionnaire to say who in their opinion, is or was a cool leader and among the list of names to score was Hitler.

Mr Jetley’s website included a poll – which he has now closed – and nearly 1,600 people responded, the overwhelming majority critical of the project.

Threatened

In his open letter to Anthony Marsh, chief executive of the ambulance service trust, and Ian Cummings, chief executive of NHS West Midlands, Mr Jetley says: “At a time when the NHS is making drastic cuts, wards and A&E departments are threatened with closure, ambulance crews are responding to 999 calls in vehicles with over 300,000 miles on the clock, I believe that it is both morally and ethically wrong to be spending NHS money in this way.

“Additionally, I would question the whole premise of the research project. “WMAS doesn’t need managers that are ‘cool’. What it needs is managers that staff respect, and sending out a survey asking ‘how cool is Hitler?’ to tired and undermanned crews because overtime has been cut. isn’t going to help.

“It was for this reason I informed the media of this scandal and set up a web site where the public could vote if they believed this was a sensible use of NHS money.”

Mr Jetley says he has received many e-mails from taxpayers who were shocked by what they felt was a misuse of funds.

The ambulance service has defended the year-long study.

By Health Correspondent Dave Morris