Less For More - Part 3
Part 3 of our investigation into the NHS in Somerset and why it isn't working. We look at executive pay, agency pay and macro economics. Are we being realistic in our expectations of the NHS?
LC Special 9
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Less For More - Part 3
In the first part of our investigation into the NHS in Somerset, we showed how many employees in Somerset (and beyond) serve our local NHS. We also started to examine some of the unnecessary complexity in the way the service is structured. In the second part, we examined the basic problem at the heart of why we are putting more money in, but getting fewer deliverables out.
In this final part of our investigation, we want to take a closer look at the management expense of running such a complex organisation, why refusing an NHS pay rise is a false economy and then whether we are realistic in what we want from the NHS, given what we pay for it.
Let’s start with the Somerset Foundation NHS Trust. This is the body that runs the acute hospitals, community hospitals and mental health provision in Somerset. As we noted in our first piece, it has over 13,000 employees.
Control of the trust is in the hands of 570 managers, some of whom do a certain amount of clinical work, most do not. Of these, 193 are “Nurse Managers”.
Some of the most senior managers are exceptionally well paid as you can read below.