NHS bosses accused of ‘bullying’ when trying to enforce savings
FIVE billion pounds of taxpayers’ money could be saved by the NHS every year but health bosses are accused of “bullying” when they try to clamp down on waste, The Daily Telegraph has been told.
Complaints from junior staff of harassment have led to a “reluctance” among managers to enforce widespread savings across the health service, a senior NHS source revealed. It comes as Boris Johnson faces pressure to insist on sweeping NHS reforms as the price of a £12billion tax rise on millions of workers.
MPS fear that the money could be squandered on an increasingly bloated NHS bureaucracy, and on outdated and wasteful procurement. Analysis by The Telegraph today reveals that the NHS is spending tens of millions of pounds on paracetamol, aspirin and other overthe-counter-drugs, as well as prescriptions for toothpaste, mouthwash and Gaviscon heartburn relief. Earlier this week The Telegraph reported that the NHS is hiring an army of 42 new managers on salaries of up to £270,000.
The senior source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that at least £5billion every year – nearly half of the money raised by Mr Johnson’s tax rise – is currently being wasted across the health service.
“Getting a grip on the money means managing people effectively, but in some parts of the system, there’s a reluctance to do it,” the source said. “If you look at staff satisfaction surveys, you’ve got bullying and harassment at a ridiculously high level. And when management start to ask people to find ways of saving money, people throw their hands up and say: ‘Oh, you know, I’m being bullied.’
“We could save £5billion by tightening up on waste. We can do more with what we’ve got. The main problem is our labour productivity – bringing the underperformers up to the standards of their brilliant colleagues. Some of our hospitals are allowed year after year to languish. Other healthcare systems – the Germans or French – are more intolerant of shortcomings, quality failure, and more intolerant of bad use of resources.”
In 2015, a major review of the NHS led by Lord Carter of Coles found that £5billion could be saved annually by smarter procurement of hospital supplies and better staff management.
Meanwhile analysis by The Telegraph revealed that prescriptions for over-the-counter painkillers cost the NHS at least £120million last year, despite a push to stop GPS dishing out drugs for everyday illnesses.
An NHS spokesman said: “We have already curbed prescriptions on a host of products, which alongside other efficiency measures has freed up hundreds of millions of pounds. England has one of the most efficient health services in the world, with administrative costs of less than 2p in every pound of funding.”