I was very concerned to read recently that, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSIC), there has been a 20.3 per cent fall in the number of doctors working at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the five years between July 2012 and July 2017, compared to a 52.7 per cent increase in the number of managers during the same period.
Improving mental health services has long been an issue very close to my heart and its importance was yet again brought home to me by the death this month of my late friend’s son who had struggled for many years with bipolar disorder.
That’s why I have written to the Chief Executive of NSFT to request an urgent meeting with her to go through this data, understand the situation and discuss her plans to put the Trust back on to a healthy footing – following the CQC’s recent recommendation that the Trust should be placed into special measures once again.
I have been very vocal about my belief that too much precious taxpayers’ money is being wasted on, often duplicating, back office bureaucracy, instead of ensuring that it reaches the frontline services we all rely on. Growth in the number of managers at the NSFT while the number of frontline doctors declines is completely the wrong way around.