NHS salaries should be 'prioritised for the frontline', Dr Vallance-Owen claims

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The NHS has been criticised for its latest "dreadful optics" after a new report revealed that hundreds of managers are receiving six-figure salaries, despite poor performance at their trusts.In a report released by the TaxPayers' Alliance, the first-ever "NHS Rich List" exposed 512 managers who earned more than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's £172,153 salary during the 2023-24 financial year.FULL STORY HERE.

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00:00Now, is it any wonder that the NHS is constantly crying out for more, Wonga?

00:04Well, a new report out today has revealed that hundreds of health bosses

00:08are pocketing salaries way in excess of even that of the Prime Minister.

00:14Now, despite failing to bring down waiting lists,

00:16almost 1,700 bureaucrats at NHS trusts were each given more than £100,000 a year

00:22and over 500 of them earn more than the Prime Minister.

00:27Well, let's speak now with the former medical director

00:30and chief medical officer at Bupa, Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen.

00:35Andrew, welcome to the show.

00:36The numbers are simply eye-watering.

00:39300 health bosses, more than £200,000.

00:42One of them on £367,500.

00:47Is this simply too much money going on middle management?

00:52I mean, the optics are dreadful, aren't they, this whole report?

00:57I mean, to be fair for a moment, these businesses decided in this Daily Telegraph report

01:03are large, multi-million businesses.

01:07So we have to bear that in mind, the stresses and strains of running big businesses,

01:12and people in the private sector are probably earning more than this for that side of business.

01:18So we have to bear that in mind.

01:19But the trouble is it filters down next layer, next layer, next layer, right down into middle management.

01:27And it just seems that priority is being given more to management than it is to our clinical front line,

01:36the doctors and nurses out there who have been run down in terms of their salaries over a number of years by the NHS,

01:45whereas management salaries seem to have been going up.

01:49My, just for a moment to say, my niece is a doctor in training,

01:55and at the age of her early 30s, she was earning about £55,000.

02:00She was already operating by herself, so a lot of responsibility.

02:04And a friend of hers at the same age, in her early 30s, on the NHS management training scheme, was earning £75,000.

02:12Well, where are the priorities?

02:14The priorities should surely be putting money to the front line where it's desperately needed,

02:20and that's where the waiting lists have to be tackled.

02:22And looking at some of the numbers, for example, the chief executive, Rachel Carlton,

02:31who is on £367,500 at East Cheshire NHS Trust,

02:37they have a very poor target of hitting waiting list targets,

02:43just 50.6% within the target time of appointments, well below the 78% expected nationally.

02:50So poor performance is clearly being rewarded, and this will heighten the conversation, will it not,

02:57of is it time to forget about paying private sector salaries for public sector, like at the BBC?

03:03Maybe there should be salary caps, and how about a full audit of the NHS,

03:08like we saw in America with Elon Musk, and cutting this middle management wastage,

03:14and put it back, that salary there is equivalent to 12 nurses.

03:17Yeah, yeah, I mean, it is quite extraordinary, and this getting on, keeping on getting that money

03:24and getting high bonuses when your hospital is clearly failing on its targets, it's a nonsense.

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