David Craig, on August 20th, 2012NHS bosses claim they are having to make cutbacks in medical services because of a lack of money. But the NHS gets twice as much as it did a decade ago. Plus it’s got �229bn in PFI hospitals. The real problem is that the NHS has wasted billions of our money on bureaucrats. Here’s a small example of the problem:
New Labour set up at least one new healthcare regulator each year it was in power, though 2004 was a bumper year with no fewer than three new regulators being imposed on us. In 2001, we got the National Patient Safety Agency � about �30 million a year and over three hundred staff. In 2002, there was the Nursing and Midwifery Council � about �24 million a year and two hundred and forty plus staff. In 2002 we also were given the NHS Confederation � �26.5 million a year. In 2003 the Health Protection Agency began work – �250 million a year and over three thousand staff. In the same year there was the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency – �80 million budget and eighty staff.
In 2004 our healthcare bureaucrats hit the jackpot. In January, Monitor appeared on the scene � over �13 million a year. There was also the Healthcare Commission – �80 million a year and over five hundred staff. And not to forget the Commission for Social Care Inspection – �164 million and 2,335 staff.
I could go on. There are still a few more to come. But you probably get the picture by now. All these new bodies were apparently Blair�s and Brown�s way of fulfilling the pledge given in New Labour�s 1997 election manifesto, �the key is to root out unnecessary administrative cost and to spend money on the right things � frontline care�. Looking at what had actually happened, one commentator recently remarked, �of all the billions poured into the NHS, it is just sickening to see how much of it has been soaked up by this ever-expanding bureaucracy, particularly these quangos�.
Need I say more?
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