Health cash 'scandal' as NHS managers double
THE number of NHS managers in Northern Ireland has almost doubled over the last decade new figures reveal, sparking complaints that precious health cash is being squandered on red tape.
Last night there were calls for the "scandalous" use of NHS resources to be redirected to healing the sick, not fuelling a burgeoning bureaucracy.
The number of managers and senior managers has increased from 1,111 a decade ago to 2,069 this year.
INCREASE
Overall, health service administrators have increased by almost a third since 1998 and now stand at 11,400 – compared to about 17,200 doctors and nurses working in Ulster hospitals.
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey acknowledged there were too many administrators and told the News Letter that he is working to reduce the number of "back office staff".
Last night Mark Wallace, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, called for the NHS to re-focus on restoring patients to health rather than meeting targets.
"This is an absolutely scandalous use of public money and is rooted in the target-driven management culture in the NHS," he said.
"The public expect their taxes to be spent on healing the sick, not on fuelling a growing bureaucracy."
QUESTION
Strangford MLA Simon Hamilton, who obtained the figures in a written Assembly answer, said there were serious questions about the rapid increase in the number of administrators.
"The rapid rise in the number of administrators in the NHS, and managers in particular, is quite staggering," he said.
"It would seem that a significant portion of the billions upon billions of pounds of additional resources that has been pumped in the health and social care sector has gone to pen pushing instead of trolley pushing."
The figures, which cover the period up to September, show that over the decade clerical staff have increased from 7,342 to 9,116, senior executives have risen from 142 to 159 and board members have gone up from 48 to 82.
Ten years ago there were 495 NHS managers in Northern Ireland. By September, the figure stood at 919 — a 91 per cent increase. During the same period senior managers increased from 616 to 1,123.
In other words, there are more senior NHS managers than managers, a statistic which critics said reinforced the impression of a bloated and top-heavy tier of NHS management.
However, the decade-long trend may be turning round - an analysis of the figures year-by-year shows that last year the number of senior managers fell slightly for the first time in a decade.
And other classes of administrators also began to fall slightly this year.
AIM
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey told the News Letter that he was fully committed to making the health service more efficient.
"I will deliver total efficiencies of some 343 million over the next three years, with structural reform representing over 53m of that figure," he said.
"I aim to achieve a reduction of 25 per cent back office staff and a 10 per cent reduction in managers and other clinical support staff by 2010-2011.
"I want to ensure however that in delivering those efficiencies that they are just that and not cuts, which will be extremely challenging in an already constrained budgetary climate.
"The number of administrators is now falling as a direct result of vacancy controls and changes in structures arising out of the Review of Public Administration. There has however also been a considerable fall in the numbers of senior executives and senior managers as a direct result of the merger of 18 trusts into five.
"A fall in the number of managerial positions should continue to be seen as the new structures are further established."
Mr Hamilton said: "There is clearly a necessity for administrators within the NHS so that the available resources can be best managed, but I am in no doubt that these figures will frustrate the public who rightly demand that their taxes be spent on frontline medical services — not paperwork and bureaucracy."
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