We bean counters need to speak out about NHS cuts

We bean counters need to speak out about NHS cuts Finance staff could make a stand without any direct impact on patient care, so why don't we?

Pen pushers, bean counters, faceless bureaucrats, stuffed shirts, spreadsheet monkeys, grey suits are all terms that I have heard applied to the national health service's finance staff. I am one of the "bean counters" and until recently it was largely a case of sticks and stones for me. We are an easy target for vote-hungry politicians keen to show how they can save a few bob for the public purse. But peer beyond the lazy rhetoric and it is possible to appreciate that, although we might not be the ones caring for patients, we have a crucial part to play in ensuring that a vast organisation faced with rising demand and a finite level of funding uses its resources wisely. It can be the difference between whether some patients get the care they need or not.

The NHS is in the final year of a four-year challenge to save £20bn. This is dressed up as "efficiency savings" and "cost improvement programmes" but in reality it means cuts to services, staff pay freezes and pensions "reform". That's not enough for NHS England, though, which estimates that the NHS needs to find a further £30bn of savings by 2020-21. In the meantime, the government has the cheek to pretend that NHS funding has somehow been ringfenced. Continue reading... The Guardian