Economics -
National Health Service
Waste
The
NHS is throwing away billions of pounds of
taxpayers’ money. The last National
Insurance tax hike was meant to raise £8billion
to improve front-line health services. But much
of the cash is being swallowed up by red tape and
the creation of hundreds of meaningless jobs with
high salaries. While hospitals are desperate for
nurses, the NHS is hiring managers on £30,000 a
year to lecture people on eating more veg. A
report by the independent Audit Commission said:
“There is a real risk that the value of
billions of pounds of new public money will not
be maximised.” The Commission says many
hospitals with second-rate managers are
swallowing the extra cash they have been given
without improving patient care.
Ministers’ promises to hit targets for
doctor and nurse recruitment, waiting times and
other pledges are also doomed to fail. James
Strachan, boss of the Audit Commission, which
monitors public spending, rapped the Government
for setting “too many piecemeal
targets”. And he added, “The pressure
put on waiting time targets has led to a
tremendous amount of distortion of the
system.” The Commission’s probe
revealed billions earmarked for killers like
cancer and heart disease are being used to prop
up hospitals’ day-to-day budgets. And it
warned a raft of Government pledges will not be
met in the ten-year NHS plan. There is only a 45
per cent chance of hospitals hiring the number of
nurses needed, and only a 30 per cent chance of
casualty waits being cut to a maximum four hours.
Ambulances only have a 50/50 chance of hitting a
target of reaching 999 calls in eight minutes.
The study PRAISES NHS chiefs in some areas. GP
services are quicker, with hundreds of thousands
more patients seeing a doc within 48 hours.
Out-patient waiting times have been cut to 21
weeks for most patients. And few have to wait
more than a year for an in-patient operation. But
the study warns that only 50 per cent of patients
will get a GP’s appointment within 24 hours,
the target the Government has pledged to achieve.
Audit Commission experts also warn short-term
improvements in efficiency are unlikely to
continue in future years. A SECOND influential
report also clobbered the Government.
The Office for National Statistics warned the
Government was achieving less with every pound it
spent than five years ago. It reported Government
productivity had nose-dived by five per cent
since 1998. The study said: “Resources are
being used less efficiently.” Shadow
Chancellor Michael Howard said, “Questions
must be raised about the value people are getting
for higher taxes.”
The
Kent and Sussex Hospital is spending up to
£23,000 a week to ferry patients from ward to
ward in private ambulances, because the lifts are
BROKEN. Dozens of sick people are wheeled outside
into the cold on trolleys then driven 400 YARDS
uphill to beds in another wing. NHS bosses are
paying up to £100 an hour of taxpayers' money to
send dead bodies through the same grim procedure
to get to the mortuary. The crisis began when the
15-year-old lifts, which are second hand and are
thought to have been bought from Gatwick Airport,
broke down. The lifts are crucial because one
wing, built in the 1930s and containing the
accident and emergency department and mortuary,
is on a different level to other wards.
When the lift control panel went haywire, the NHS
trust which runs the hospital in Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, had to hire two private ambulances to back
up their own hard-pressed 999 vehicles. Director
of nursing Bernard Place confirmed that each
private ambulance is on call for nine hours
during the day at a cost of £100 an hour. A
third is on standby for 15 hours during the night
at the same rate. He added, "The lifts are
essential due to the different floor levels. But,
as they are not working, patients are brought
outside on trolley from casualty, put into an
ambulance and driven up the hill to the back
entrance to go on another ward. I am concerned
that patients who have been in casualty or in
theatre are being taken outside particularly at
this time of year."
A porter is also alleged to have injured his back
while struggling to get a drum of clinical waste
into a vehicle. A trust spokesman denied the
figure of £23,000 a week, saying, "It
ranges from £50 to £75 an hour depending on
whether an ambulance is needed during the day or
at night. So far we have spent £28,000 in four
weeks and we will need an ambulance next
week." He added that any dead bodies were
transferred "with dignity".
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