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The NHS workforce survey, published last week, shows that the number of NHS managers has soared by more than 15,000 since 1997 which costs the NHS £1.5 billion a year the equivalent of 52,000 nurses.
The survey revealed the average annual rise in managers and senior managers from 1997-2004 was 2,222, or 15,554 in total. An extra 4,169 staff a year have been brought in to clerical and administrative roles, with 29,183 extra staff employed by 2004.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “There are more managers but they are managing more staff. Between 1997 and 2004 we have had 27,400 more doctors and 78,659 more nurses”.
Chris Grayling, the Tory health spokesman said “To be spending £1.5 billion extra on bureaucracy which could be spent on patient care, more beds or more nurses is really quite extraordinary. If ever proof were needed that the Government has got the wrong priority for the health service, this is it. We could be doing so much more for this country if we pushed funding through to frontline services”.
Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS managers, said that it was “fed up with the demonising of hardworking managers and support staff”.
Just 3 per cent of the 1.3 million NHS staff in England were managers or senior managers, while 13 per cent were in support services such as cleaning, catering, laundry and IT, she said. “Managerial and support staff are a vital part of the NHS team because they allow doctors, nurses and other frontline clinical staff to concentrate on what they do best – caring for patients,” she said.
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