Have all the extra NHS billions been wasted??

has the increased funding for medical education, training of nurses, paramedics, dentists, opthalmologists been wasted. Or do we simply need to be patient and wait a few more years to see tangible improvements in UK healthcare delivery??? Are there too many government-set targets in the NHS???

The reason that billions are being wasted in the NHS is due to the Private Finance Initiative. A private company foots the bill for building a new hospital, and the NHS leases the hospital at a price for a certain number of years. So, instead of say, an old hospital being modernised at a one off cost of 拢35 million, its demolished, the land sold off to build luxury flats that no one can afford, and a new hospital built on the outskirts of town. Great, weve got a brand new hospital, and the NHS has made a nice profit on the land that the old hospital was on. In reality, the NHS then lease back the new hospital for say 拢25 million a year for the next 25 years. Thats 拢625 million going to a group of faceless fat cats instead of into the healthcare of the public. And of course, they demand their money before all others, so the NHS has to sack staff, cut down on its cleaning bills, close wards etc, while people who have paid their tax and NI into the system, in the vain hope that theyll get a decent level of care when they need it can go to hell. This happens with schools as well. Its a disgrace.

Not too long ago, a new building for NHS administrators was completed, it included a sports complex, and large areas of imported marble, 8 times more expensive than standard. Money is being wasted left right and centre, and it needs to stop.

Basically I think the NHS and Government have wasted the money on employing managers,,the hospitals seemed to manage ok without all the politically correct managers who are certainly paid way too much when the money could be better spent on actually looking after the patients in their care. What happened to the Joan Sims or Hattie Jakes type of ward sisters? The hospitals never had many problems when there were ward sisters working.
And the only thing that I can visibly see that is better in hospitals are the managers suits and computers,,it's certainly not the patient care or the food. And if it was not for the Nurses from the Philippines working here,,we would not have any nurses either,,so you tell me where all the money has gone and what has happened to our once great hospitals,,answer the Tony Blair lot has not only screwed us and our country,,but they have screwed our national health system too!!

Perhaps someone can explain to me how it is that we can spend twice as much on the NHS (or whatever it is) and now we see NHS trusts running up deficits. That doesn't make any sense at all. It's the most spectacular piece of mismanagement that I have ever seen. It would be funny if it didn't cost us all so much. I think it costs us roughly 拢2000 a year each - we could all get fantastic health care from the private sector for that money. But we are told that public is good and private is dirty capitalism, so we should be happy to hand our cash over to Gordon.

I worked in the NHS. Most of the money has gone on two things: salaries (mostly rises for doctors and senior managers), and on the failing IT system programme. The problem is this: modern management theory and the fact that the NHS is a bizarre combination of stalinistic state entity and free-for-all where staff are encouraged to make as much money for themselves as possible. It is deeply inefficient at treating patients well.

Maybe not all, but the majority of it has been wasted. I can't see why there has to be "targets" for anything with regards to health, if someone is ill and the hospital has the people in place to treat these people then they should be treated, it is the same with drugs, if they have the drugs, use them on the people that need them, cost should have nothing to do with it. They should also get rid of the so called "Managers" as these people are costing a fortune to employ for doing nothing

all im gonna say is yes .kinda odvious.

I think we should scrap the NHS altogether and make people pay for health care they might actually get off their backsides and work then and stop faking illnesses just to sponge more state benefits...

The problem with this is all the idiots that "manage" the NHS, not the doctors and nuses etc. who work on the front line.

Most of these so called managers and decision makers get these jobs because of who they know, not because they can do the job properly or effectively. "Jobs for the boys" or girls, as the case may be.

In our area the NHS trust is headed by a person that has no formal training or qualifications to run such an organisation so how the hell she got the job I can only speculate.

This is why the NHS is in such a mess, we cannot for one moment blame the front line staff, they are the poor people who have to put up with all this incompetence every day.

And before I get any negative comments I have 20 years managerial experience with both, high level academic and professional qualifications to back it up.