25 March 2005
An independent audit of NHS progress under Labour has put into perspective emotive headlines about the health service, the NHS Confederation said this week.
On March 20, the King's Fund published the findings of its assessment of Labour's health policies and outcomes since 1997 following weeks of adverse publicity for the NHS.
It said the government had made huge strides in reforming the health service but there were important problems to be solved and as yet there was no firm evidence to show the reforms had produced a marked improvement in the nation's health.
Confederation chief executive Gill Morgan said progress had been made but work remained to be done.
'The King's Fund audit is a useful reminder that highly emotive headlines about the NHS need to be placed in perspective. For example, there were 66,203 cancelled operations in 2003/04 and yet that represents just 0.01% of all the completed episodes of care that required an operation during the year.'
She added: 'Another notable example is the often repeated claim that extra investment in the NHS is being squandered on 'pen-pushers', 'bureaucrats' or 'paper shufflers'.
'In fact, workforce statistics published by the Department of Health this week show that less than 3% of NHS staff in England are managers or senior managers.'
However, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley insisted there were too many managers.
'You know something is going wrong when the number of managers has increased at triple the number of doctors and nurses and when the 33,000 GPs in primary care trusts are outnumbered by the 39,000 bureaucrats,' he added.
The audit, which was commissioned by the Sunday Times, found that spending now matched European levels but questions remained over whether the service was achieving value for money.
King's Fund chief executive Niall Dickson said: 'Overall, the results of the audit undertaken by the King's Fund are positive. There has been unprecedented investment and there have been significant improvements in most areas.
'So, is the NHS better than it was in 1997? We believe it is, although it should be, considering the government has doubled the health service budget since it came to power.'
In the Commons on March 22, Health Secretary John Reid announced a record increase in the numbers of consultants, GPs and midwives working for the NHS, which now has 1.33 million employees.
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