NHS 'gravy train' pays ?570k a year for managers

[Northerner]

NHS hospitals are paying senior managers rates of up to ?570,000 a year each via private agencies, an investigation has revealed.

Former NHS chief executives who retired with multi-million pound pensions and US business executives are among those being paid twice as much as the managers they have replaced.

Ministers have repeatedly pledged to cut down excess spending in the NHS, with a pay freeze last year and promises to clamp down on the use of spending via private agencies.

Yet an investigation by The Daily Telegraph found 24 managers paid rates of more than ?1,000 a day during 2012/13 - including 11 executives on more than ?300,000 a year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...ravy-train-pays-570k-a-year-for-managers.html

Margaret Hodge is the hardest working person in politics 🙂

 

[Royston46]

This makes my blood boil 😡

 

[LeeLee]

Unfortunately it can be very difficult to recruit to certain posts, and in the meantime the job still needs to be done. The Trust I used to work for was making huge efforts to reduce expenditure on agency fees, but sometimes it's the only solution.

Many posts are now only advertised on a fixed term basis because 'who knows what the budget might be next year'. That can make the jobs unattractive to candidates who need job security. Whilst doing a job via an agency is by no means secure, any extra money allows one to budget for future periods of unemployment. Managers have houses, children, etc., the same as everybody else.

P.S. Agencies charge roughly double what the worker actually receives. Were the Telegraph figures based on expenditure or take-home pay?