Amanda Pritchard says ‘a lot’ of cash allocated by the Chancellor for patient care will be used by management to give each other salary increases.
Britain badly needs a US-style DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and they should start with the NHS.
The NHS swallows up billions in taxpayer funds without any oversight or accountability, leading to huge waste, ineptitude, and fraud, because of layer upon layer of useless management. Now it has emerged that some £25 Billion allocated by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to go to frontline services is being used for management salary increases.
On 22 January 2024, the UK government announced a £25bn increase in NHS funding as part of the latest budget. The funds, meant to improve healthcare infrastructure, were soon revealed to be primarily covering pay settlements, particularly middle and senior managers who are all set to receive significant pay increases. NHS England confirmed that 60% of the budget (£15b) was immediately re-designated for salary 'adjustments' rather than frontline care.
According to NHS England's financial report, released on 25 January 2024, of the £25bn allocated, £15bn is set aside for 'staffing' costs. Additional reports from the National Audit Office highlight what it calls "inefficiencies in administrative expenses", showing that NHS management spending has increased by 8% since 2022. Data from the Office for National Statistics indicates that UK healthcare spending per capita has surged 12% since 2020, despite persistent patient backlogs.
NHS management have defended the decision, citing prior agreements with health sector unions. Many NHS managers will now be able to upgrade their Mercedes A Class to the bigger C Class or even larger, options all available through NHS vehicle financing.
This latest revelation has made calls for a British DOGE even louder.
The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is the new task force created by Donald Trump and headed up by Elon Musk dedicated to uncovering wasteful public spending and ensuring taxpayer money is used wisely. By scrutinising government budgets and expenditures, DOGE has exposed shocking financial mismanagement and brought transparency to public sector spending. One of DOGE’s standout achievements is its ability to highlight the most outrageous examples of government waste. Among its discoveries:
$10,000 on luxury biscuits – A government department splurged on high-end snacks for meetings, despite budget constraints.
$200,000 on a ‘well-being’ app – The app, intended for civil servants, was widely criticised for offering basic advice available freely online.
$3 million on an unused call centre – Despite being fully staffed, this facility handled only a handful of calls daily.
$500,000 for a statue review panel – A committee was formed to assess the ‘historical sensitivity’ of public statues, with little tangible outcome.
$1 million on failed rebranding efforts – A government agency spent heavily on new logos and branding, only to revert to its original design.
DOGE has only been operating for less than two weeks but has already identified billions in waste, vanity projects, WOKE schemes, pointless bureaucracy, as well as more sinister projects where money appears to have been funnelled into the bank accounts of politicians, such as Hilary Clinton, which should have gone to the victims of natural disasters such as Haiti.
A British DOGE would no doubt expose the same type of waste, WOKE nonsense, and fraud as the US version. Many who support the idea have suggested the amount of fraud and waste in Britain's public sector would be even worse than that of the United States. Certainly, the idea is an attractive one, and is already making thousands of useless public sector employees start to have sleepless nights and that can only be a good thing.
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