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David Oliver appears to forget that there were less than a 1,000 managers in the NHS in 1997 but 40,000 by 2010. The Coalition made a great show when they reduced managers by 10% to 37,000 in 2013 so I'm not certain where his figures come from, but what's a few thousand here or there. The sad thing is that our whole Health system has been ceded to non-clinical managers whose points of reference are numerical targets, performance and finance, not firmly centred on patient care.
This is not to advocate clinicians, or more specifically doctors, managing the system; in Leeds in the 1980s and '90s you required a border line genius IQ, at least, to understand the Medical Consultant On Call rota (Surgeons merely had a surgeon of the day), but to plead for the return of genuine Administrators who could bring their diverse expertise and knowledge to help the patient, Mine, cannot be the only area in the country where past Medical Administrators are still remembered with respect and affection for their enormous contribution to local health care.
Re: David Oliver: Is the NHS really over-managed?
Dear Editor
David Oliver appears to forget that there were less than a 1,000 managers in the NHS in 1997 but 40,000 by 2010. The Coalition made a great show when they reduced managers by 10% to 37,000 in 2013 so I'm not certain where his figures come from, but what's a few thousand here or there. The sad thing is that our whole Health system has been ceded to non-clinical managers whose points of reference are numerical targets, performance and finance, not firmly centred on patient care.
This is not to advocate clinicians, or more specifically doctors, managing the system; in Leeds in the 1980s and '90s you required a border line genius IQ, at least, to understand the Medical Consultant On Call rota (Surgeons merely had a surgeon of the day), but to plead for the return of genuine Administrators who could bring their diverse expertise and knowledge to help the patient, Mine, cannot be the only area in the country where past Medical Administrators are still remembered with respect and affection for their enormous contribution to local health care.
Competing interests: No competing interests