Dorrell: NHS needs managers

Stephen Dorrell, chair of the Commons health committee, discussed the NHS reforms in an interview with the Financial Times:
“Would we contemplate district councils meeting in private without public access to papers and proper minutes and declarations of interest? Of course not. It is self-evident that there has to be proper governance.
“Without managers, nothing happens. It’s an easy way to raise a cheer to say that you are against bureaucracy. And everyone is against expensive processes that do not add value. Indeed that is the result of a lack of management. But ministers really should stop substituting the word bureaucracy for manager. To create the impression that somehow the NHS does not need managers is self-evident nonsense. As the committee said, their work should be valued, alongside the work of the clinical staff of the NHS. They should not be the subject of unjustified populist criticism.
“The requirement to deliver a more integrated, co-ordinated service is the clinical priority, and it is also the response to the [efficiency] challenge.
“You have to have a commissioning authority that is fit for purpose – and in 21 years that’s the one thing we have never had.”