Wes Streeting about the NHS ‘failing managers’.

Sarnia

Let's have some action, then. I worked in the NHS for 17 years and in that time saw a huge rise in managers and latterly, managers for diversity and inclusion (yawn) all on high salaries.
The NHS needs a thorough root and branch overhaul and millions could be saved. No need to keep increasing the amount given to the NHS.

I do remember being in hospital and just beyond my room were double doors and a lot of empty rooms along the corridor beyond there.
The Sister told me they had requested to use those rooms for patients as they were desperate for more space but that they had been designated for the increased number of managers they were taking on.
That was 20 years ago.

These are the key messages from a paper by the King's Fund with the title "Why management matters so much for the success of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan":

www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/why-management-matters-nhs-10-year-plan

Key messages

-High-calibre, well-trained management and clinical leadership are critical to the delivery of the ambitions of the 10 Year Health Plan.

-There is a pressing need to professionalise, invest in and support NHS management within a system of regulation that will assure core standards, a code of conduct, training and continuing professional development.

-The NHS is under-managed in the international context, and this poses significant risks to the ability of the service to make desired improvements.

-The centre of the NHS must create and model the conditions within which local leaders and senior managers are able to support clinical teams and staff in making local service improvements.

-The local NHS leadership community must step up and act on the changes now needed to management training, support and professionalisation.

-NHS management really matters. Instead of being denigrated, it should be supported and celebrated within a proportionate framework of professional development and accountability.

I've seen other reports that the NHS is under-managed, so this isn't a "one off". The problem seems to be that "managers"'s role in the NHS is more about hitting targets dictated from the centre rather than being able to deliver solutions based on local needs. Managers aren't being allowed to manage - they're more like team leaders. There's very little innovation coming from the "chalk face".

The motivation of senior managers in any public service is very different from a private business.

Referring back to my previous post, I was a middle manager in a non-clinical setting with numerous layers of senior and senior executive managers above me. My team spent a huge amount of time collating data for senior managers to present at meetings to other senior managers and arm length organisations on such things as diversity. Much of this data was duplicated in different formats for different people and was frankly meaningless for the most part.
The NHS is not one organisation but is made up of over 200 different trusts and, during my time, each had their own policies and paperwork and each had someone responsible for creating these. If these had been centralised so much money could have been saved and spent on the more important medical and clinical staff. I very much doubt that this has changed today.