The NHS: Where does all the money go?
Part 15: NHS England Efficiencies
NHS England stated function is to lead the National Health Service (NHS) in England. It directly employed 15,172 staff, until 2022/23, when it started laying some people off - 1,078 people agreed to exit packages in 2022-23 that cost £79 million.
Now we learn the cull is to continue as NHS England has plans to reduce its workforce by ‘around half’ in a ‘radical reduction’
NHSE said ‘As part of the need to make best possible use of taxpayers’ money to support frontline services, the size of NHS England will be radically reduced and could see the size of the centre decrease by around half.’
Here in the TTE office, we wonder if the current government has been listening. In October, we proposed the first draft of a new NHS.
‘NHS England should be disbanded, with the exception of the NHS Fraud Squad, which should be amalgamated with its police counterpart, its budget doubled, and enhanced with an incentive mechanism. If you get a court conviction for, say, £500M worth of fraud, you get to keep 5%, which will be divided amongst the officers who secured the conviction.’
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary said: ‘We are entering a period of critical transformation for our NHS. With a stronger relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, we will work together with the speed and urgency needed to meet the scale of the challenge.’
Wes, if you’re listening, the DHSC should be next for the axe: ‘Finally, yes, finally, as this is a bottom-up proposal, there is a need for a small representation at the ministerial level—so a slimmed-down DHSC that functions as a system coordinator and interacts with politicians.’
On the weekend, Lucy Johnstone picked up on TTE’s analysis.
The evolution of non-jobs in the NHS is deeply concerning. Thousands of individuals are employed in bureaucratic roles that divert funds away from patient care. Many workers analyze data without understanding its significance or how to act on the results. Meanwhile, frontline staff face increasing levels of monitoring, mandatory training, and additional tasks that take them away from direct patient care.
The NHS has adopted a corporate approach to healthcare, resulting in multiple layers of administration to manage its various sectors. Wes claims he is working to strengthen his control over the NHS, provide better value for taxpayers, and free up funds for frontline services. If Wes is paying attention, one thing is for sure: TTE will continue questioning where all the money goes.
This post was written by two old geezers who still have no idea where all the cash goes.
I’ve seen where some of the money goes this week. The midwives visiting my daughter’s newly born breastfed twins have been obliged to follow a protocol that prompts them to call a hotline to speak to a neonatal paediatrician, even where they have no concerns with the health of the babies. Undermining the clinical judgement of the midwives, a highly paid paediatrician is sitting at the end of the phone waiting for calls, many of which will be unnecessary, as in the case of my daughter’s healthy babies.
Thank you both💖💖👍👍👏👏