An Admission

I spotted this Tweet from John Redwood on Friday about NHS managers.

I'm not sure whether he meant it such, but it's an admission that the NHS is not stuffed to the gills with layers of management, as many believe and many never fail to tell us, especially politicians of a certain bent.

There are over 1.2m full-time equivalent staff in the NHS and 33,000 is 2.75% (I believe the ratio is actually closer to 2%), which is a ratio that's far smaller than the 10% plus in large corporations.

I have no problem with the opinion that many of these managers are responsible for mismanagement and inefficiency - every organisation has its fair share of incompetents; it even extends to the upper echelons of government itself.  The NHS is not immune.

The government and the right wing press simply don't seem to understand that if you tell the truth whenever possible, you have far less chance of being called out as a liar when you do actually lie, as people will be more inclined to believe you. However, if you habitually lie, you have great difficulty getting anyone to believe you when you do tell the truth.