The NHS has thousands of managers. They tell me they do not know how many highly paid Chief Executives they employ, presumable because it is so many. Every quango from NHS England down, every hospital Trust has a CEO.
Suddenly we are allowed to see a couple of the top executives on tv. They are always given respectful interviews. They are never asked why they cannot get their staff on board, why they cannot get the waiting lists down , why we are always short of hospital beds. They are never asked what they did with last £10 or £20 bn of extra money.
Here are some questions that should be put to the managers
1 Ministers want waiting lists down. How could you do that?
2 The public want the nurses and doctors to be well remunerated and motivated. Can you use pay scales, increments and promotions to raise morale?
3 Why have you kept the service short of beds? Why hasn’t extra cash expanded medical capacity more?
4 Why do you expand the administrative and executive hierarchy so much? How much has the latest management reorganisation cost?
5 Why do you depend so much on agency staff? Isn’t this an expensive way of employing people who then cost much more than directly employed staff.
