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Now, is it any wonder that the NHS is constantly crying out for more Wonga
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Well, a new report out today has revealed that hundreds of health bosses
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are pocketing salaries way in excess of even that of the prime minister
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Now, despite failing to bring down waiting lists, almost 1,700 bureaucrats at NHS trusts were each given more than £100,000 a year
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and over 500 of them earn more than the prime minister. Well, let's speak now with the former medical director and chief medical officer at Bupa, Dr. Andrew Valance Owen
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Andrew, welcome to the show. The numbers are simply eye-watering. 300 health bosses, more than 200 grand. One of them on £367,500
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Is this simply too much money going on middle management? I mean, the optics are dreadful, aren't they, this whole report
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I mean, to be fair for a moment, the businesses decided in this Daily Telegraph report
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are large, multi-million businesses. So we have to bear that in mind
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the stresses and strains of running big businesses, and people in the private sector are probably earning more than this
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for that side of business. So we have to bear that in mind. But the trouble is it filters down next layer, next layer, next layer, right down into into middle management
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And it just seems that priority is being given more to management than it is to our clinical front line
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The doctors and nurses out there who have been run down in terms of their salaries over over a number of years by the NHS whereas management salaries seem to have been going up My just for a moment to say my niece is a doctor in training
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and at the age of her early 30s, she was earning about £55,000
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She was already operating by herself, so a lot of responsibility. And a friend of hers at the same age, in her early 30s
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on the NHS management training scheme was earning £75,000. Well, where are the priorities
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The priorities should surely be putting money to the front line where it's desperately needed
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and that's where the waiting lists have to be tackled. And looking at some of the numbers, for example
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the chief executive, Rachel Carlton, who is on £367,500 at East Cheshire NHS Trust
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They have a very poor target of hitting waiting list targets, just 50.6% within the target time of appointments, well below the 78% expected nationally
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So poor performance is clearly being rewarded. And this will heighten the conversation, will it not, of is it time to forget about paying private sector salaries for public sector like at the BBC
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Maybe there should be salary caps. And how about a full audit of the NHS
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like we saw in America with Elon Musk, and cutting this middle management wastage and put it back
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that salary there is equivalent to 12 nurses. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is quite extraordinary
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And this getting on, keeping on getting that money and getting high bonuses when your hospital is clearly failing
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on its targets, it's a nonsense scenario
