News

NHS managers become an embarrassment

The number of managers in the health service has more than quadrupled since 1989, according to official figures released in October.

In 1989 there were 4,610 managers in the NHS, but this had risen to 20,010 by September 1993. But in some parts of the NHS the number of managers has fallen by up to 20 per cent over the year covered by the most recent statistics, while in others there have been increases of up to 57 per cent.

The greatest rises were recorded in South West Thames and Yorkshire regions, while the only fall was in the North Thames regions.

Health ministers argue that such contrary trends show that different regions are classifying staff in different ways.

But Labour MP Alan Milburn, who requested the figures, said: ‘Manager numbers continue to rise at the expense of nurses and midwives. No amount of figure-fiddling can disguise that fact.’

The new statistics will be a new source of embarrassment to ministers, who are already moving to quell widespread criticism that the NHS now has more bureaucracy than it did before the reforms.

The Department of Health revealed last month that it planned to reclassify as many as 7,000 managers according to their ‘correct functional group’. It estimates that 45 per cent of the rise in managers was due to classification of other staff as managers.

Christine Hancock, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, described the move as manipulation of the figures.

‘At a stroke it will be possible to claim improved nursing numbers and a reduction in management posts,’ she said.

Welsh Secretary John Redwood is also pressing ahead with his own campaign against NHS red tape, by demanding that NHS managers in Wales cut to a quarter the amount of paperwork they generate and the amount of time they spend in meetings. Last year Mr Redwood declared a three-year freeze on management numbers.

The government has also been put onto the defensive by a study of trust board management, compiled by the Labour Research Department, which showed that Conservative supporters are six times more likely to be given a trust directorship than Labour supporters.

Of 120 trust boards, 66 are chaired by Conservatives or supporters, and only 4 by Labour supporters.

‘The establishment of trusts has sent the NHS back to the days when it was managed by the “great and good”,’ says the report.