The NHS is burdened by costly bureaucracy which fails to improve care
SIR – The NHS now appears to be underfunded in every department. There needs to be an urgent review of all expenses which do not directly affect patient care.
Bed closures do not save significant sums of money because there is never a proportionate reduction in the fixed costs allocated. Reducing the number of available beds also leads to increased staff costs in the departments charged with getting patients off trollies. Taking indigestion remedies, paracetamol and similar items off the prescription list will also result in negligible savings.
There is a huge cost involved in producing statistics that do nothing to improve patient care. Too many hospital trusts are run as businesses, by individuals with no experience in the business sector. An inquiry tasked with slashing NHS administration costs would be a good place to start. Nigel Morgan
Cockermouth, Cumbria SIR – Why on earth does Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, need to put hospital trusts into a league table to get them to use their combined purchasing power (report, April 2)?
Hospital chief executives are paid over £200,000 per year and should be capable of managing this aspect of the job themselves. If they aren’t then they should be replaced. Philip Lloyd
Yarm, North Yorkshire
SIR – Is it any wonder there are constant cries of a funding crisis in the NHS when the procurements division can’t even grasp the age-old concept of the bulk discount? Jonathan L Kelly
Yatton, Somerset
SIR – Your correspondent BF Hunt (Letters, April 3) suggests that the NHS should have a central base that handles all buying.
I would go further and have a central purchase unit but with North and South distribution centres. The unit would get better deals through ordering items in bulk rather than placing smaller orders for direct delivery. The major supermarkets are very experienced in bulk buying and distribution, and the NHS could surely draw on this expertise. Robert Henderson
Ulverston, Cumbria
SIR – As I am in my seventies, my local surgery invites me to have an annual blood test to ascertain my biochemistry profile. When the results come back an appointment is made to discuss them with a practice nurse.
Last month I duly attended and asked for a print-out of the results, only to be told there is now a charge of £5, paid by the patient, before a copy will be handed over.
Previously such copies have always been supplied free. Is the NHS now so bereft of funds that patients are to be charged £5 for a single sheet of paper that would have taken three seconds to print? John Hartley
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire