ALMOST 500 extra managers have been recruited to the NHS throughout Greater Manchester in the past four years, the M.E.N. can reveal.
New figures show there were 1,822 managers in the region’s health service in 2004, but this had risen to more than 2,285 by 2008.
At Central Manchester Hospitals Trust, which runs the Manchester Royal Infirmary, St Mary’s and the region’s children’s, eye and dental hospitals, an extra 172 managers were taken on.
The number of managers also doubled at NHS Bury, and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT (HMR).
But some NHS bosses have suggested data from 2004 may not have been completely accurate.
Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell, who uncovered the figures by asking a question in the House of Commons, condemned the change.
He said: “The surge in the number of managers throughout the NHS in the north west is crazy when front line services are under such severe pressure.
“We need to ensure that money continues to be invested in frontline services and health professionals, not back-room officers and paper-pushers.
“The NHS budget is likely to come under even more strain in the coming years as we continue to feel the effects of the recession.
“With less money coming in, the government simply cannot afford to continue wasting it on more and more bureaucrats at the risk of cutting frontline services and damaging patient care.”
Management jobs are those held by people who are not clinically qualified.
A spokeswoman for NHS Bury said: “The apparent increase in the number of managers from 2007 to 2008 can, in the main, be attributed to the implementation of the national NHS HR payroll solution. Bury PCT implemented it during October 2007.
“PCTs have been signalled to increase their skill mix and knowledge base in order to improve their effectiveness in commissioning patient care, and this will have had an impact on all workforces.”
A spokesman for Central Manchester Hospitals said: “It is very difficult to comment on the data until we know the source and definitions used to compile the data.”
A spokeswoman for HMR trust said: “A contributing factor was the merger of Rochdale PCT and Heywood and Middleton PCT in 2006 to form NHS HMR.
“Our management structure is based on plans to improve and deliver healthcare in the Rochdale borough and to ensure the right skills and expertise are in place to meet national and local targets.”
Susie Squire, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “This highlights a very worrying overview of the spending priorities of the NHS trusts.
“NHS patients have suspected for a long time that there are far too many managers and bureaucrats working in the NHS.
“The focus needs to be put back on frontline health care services.
“People recognise some managers are necessary, but they will be concerned about the scale of this increase when they really just want to be able to see a doctor or a nurse quickly.”
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After paying for the McKinsey report, did any of these pirates actually read it?
Recently I had to cancel an appointment to see a specialist in London because the PCT has changed its policy and no longer provides travel tickets in advance for the less well off. Now we know where all the money has gone.
Rochdale's response is laughable. "It was caused by the merger of Rochdale PCT with Heywood and Middleton PCT." The rationale for a merger is to reduce cost not increase it.
shift some of them to the police force to replace the staff being chopped there.
TO MANY CHIEFS NOT ENOUGH INDIANS.
What a cheap shot, makes it sound like the NHS is overrun with managers. In the North West, there are around 210,000 staff employed by the NHS, about half are professionally qualified clinical staff, including doctors, nurses, physios etc; the other half are support staff. Managers make up only 3% of the North West's NHS workforce, around the same percentage in Greater Manchester.
How many extra staff have had to be taken on to deal with Freedom of Information requests,MPs questions and press enquiries?
Doesn't this headline require the past tense, or is the reporter attempting to imply that a management recruitment activity is underway?
is the question we should be asking is has our service become any better for incressing the number of staff?
Managers, managers, managers....this whole contry is obsessed with managing people who can on the most part actually manage themselves. Councils are the worst. In my department, there are 6 managers "managing" 14 people!!!! That at a time when front line staff are facing cuts, redundancies and incompetant management from middle class twits who have no idea what real life is all about.
It makes me sick.
More public-sector Guardianista-esque non-jobs. Axe the lot of them I say!