The general manager of Manchester Arena has denied the venue owners were 'scrounging around to save pennies' on medical care before the 2017 bombing.
James Allen, who was and remains the Arena boss and a senior official at its owners SMG Europe Ltd, was forced to defend accusations the firm had been 'passive, complacent and reactive' at time when the national terror threat was high, meaning an attack on the UK was likely.
Ten years before the blast, the firm had contracted out medical and first aid services on concert nights to Emergency Training UK (ETUK), the arena's previous provider, despite allegations of financial irregularities and dishonesty, the independent inquiry into the atrocity heard.
SMG put medical services at the arena out to tender and three firms made bids.
Despite a history of 'aggro' with ETUK, the firm landed the contract with, on one measure, the lowest bid, Mr Allen confirmed.
Some 22 people died and hundreds were seriously hurt when suicide bomber detonated a huge device in his backpack as mainly young concert-goers left the venue on May 22, 2017.
As the independent inquiry into the atrocity continued on Tuesday, arena general manager James Allen, who previously gave evidence about stewarding at the venue in November, returned to give evidence about medical cover that night.
The inquiry heard that, despite serious concerns about the firm, ETUK had been handed the contract in 2007, and had committed to providing eleven first-aiders, a radio controller, and two 'emergency medical technicians' for a little over £1,000 per event.
Following the blast, Mr Allen said he learned some of the medics didn't have the qualifications required by the contract.
He said ETUK had also not been providing the venue with the names or qualifications of the medics for each event because of concerns over 'confidentiality' so they could not be checked.
John Cooper QC, representing one group of families, questioned the size of the medical room at the arena and accused the firm of 'penny-pinching' in its contract and efforts to source stretchers prior to the bombing, pointing out the firm had handed shareholders a £3m dividend in 2015.
He said: "Its right to say, isn ’t it, that at the time that we’re talking about, first aid rooms, stretchers, and perhaps being prepared for the tragedy that happened, SMG were making a lot of money, weren’t they? A dividend, for instance, of £3m was paid out in 2015. SMG were doing very well. And yet, they are scrounging around, aren’t they, to save money on stretchers?
"It ’s a continuation of that theme, scrounging around to save pennies when in actual fact, SMG could well afford to pay for this without any big debate going on about it. Would you agree?"
Mr Allen replied: "We put everything in place that we needed."
The witness denied a suggestion the firm had been 'passive and complacent' in providing medical care just as it had been in providing security for the venue.
Earlier, Mr Allen agreed it would have been useful to have ambulances on site on the night of the attack 'if we had enough of them'.
The witness said ETUK had offered ambulances but this service was not taken up 'because it wasn't needed'.
He estimated a private ambulance would cost 'a couple of thousand pounds a year' and insisted they could end up at the wrong A&E department as they were not part of the ambulance service.
The inquiry heard that ETUK director Ian Parry had a private ambulance at the arena which he used as his own transport but it was not part of the contract.
Mr Cooper questioned why SMG did not deploy this ambulance on the night of the attack but Mr Allen insisted 'it was Ian's to deploy'.
The QC said: "SMG have a spare ambulance on the night of 22 May, in this desperate situation, and you didn’t deploy it?"
Mr Allen repeated it wasn't his to deploy and that he believed it had not been deployed by anyone that night.
The witness was also grilled on whether one small medical room with two beds was sufficient for a venue capable of accommodating 21,000 people.
He accepted it was small but he said it didn't need to be bigger, stressing that the venue had catered for 900,000 customers in 2016 but it had only called nine ambulances and 136 people had required medical attention.
He said SMG had now contracted a new medical supplier after consulting with a senior paramedic.
The inquiry continues.
