Gordonomics in action: £1.2billion on administrators

Spending on NHS bureaucracy has almost doubled in four years, research shows.

Nearly £1.2billion went on administrators and clerical staff in Primary Care Trusts in 2007/8, a rise of 81 per cent since 2003/4.

The total is nearly twice as much as the £700million the Health Service spent on anti-cancer drugs last year, with some patients being denied life-prolonging medication.

A further £139million was spent on management consultants - almost three times as much as the £ 53million spent five years ago.

Critics say the figures show the NHS has become a 'bureaucratic black hole' under Labour with money being diverted away from front line services to pay for an army of administrators.
The increase comes despite the number of PCTs halving from 303 to 152 - which was supposed to release £250million to front line services.

PCTs are spending £115million a year on agency administrative and clerical staff, more than twice as much as in 2003-04.
At the same time acute hospital trusts - which provide the healthcare patients receive in hospital - have cut their spending on bureaucrats by 8 per cent.

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