If you extend the 'audit economy' to the relationship between doctors and patients, replacing professional concern with quantifiable outcomes, then statements about the undermanagement of the National Health Service are clearly not bonkers.
Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation and the managers'
leader, yesterday defended the latest figures: 'The NHS is, if
anything, under-managed. The NHS deals with over one million patients a
day. That level of complexity takes a lot of managing so that doctors
and nurses can get on with their job.'
Whilst healthcare professionals are sacked, the NHS has employed 1,000 more managers, leading to a new total of 40,000. Now, there may be a need for more managers within individual hospitals and other healthcare institutions. But, it is hard to view such needs dispassionately in the command and control NHS.