Wat,
Ever read Parkinson's Law?
The NHS Beds:Admin ratio sounds very like his Ships:Admiralty staff ratio.
Incidentally, you touch on an important point. We now spend pretty much the same as a % of GDP as other European countries on 'health' (medical care would be a better description) but we get fewer beds, fewer medics, etc. for our money. The main reason, of course, isn't the admin overhead (much as the BMA would have you believe that it is) it's the fact that power of the unions and producer interest has ensured that we pay our medical staff far more (and with very expensive pensions) than they do in the more free market European systems. So we can afford far fewer of them.
Reading the relevant text
http://www.yes-minister.com/ymseas2a.htm
They have been keeping perfectly to the script.
a doubling of managers is NOT a 200% increase, it is a 100% increase, it is 200% of the original number, hence 100% increase.
"the the number of non-clinical staff grew consistently faster than clinical staff from 1998 to 2003 and they almost became the majority. The ratio has now mysteriously slipped back:"
Why is it mysterious?
The new contract in 2004 reduced clinical staff hours considerably, I've read they reguarly worked 100 hours per week - the WTD demanded this halved - therefore you need nearly two clinical staff to do the work one used to do.
Hi Matthew
Good spot- I misread the chart, mixing up the line with the bars
Now corrected
That is a pretty painful set of statistics. Shame the Conservatives are so busy with their 'Quality of Life' report today, or should they have put the fact that there aren't enough hospital beds under the same heading?
Dr Rant team have got their response to Wanless launched now. Dr Rant: The Wanless Report
The analysis on your blog is excellent. When will all government action come with a public wealth warning?
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