Redwood seeks less bureaucracy in NHS

(First Edition)

A BLUEPRINT for improving the efficiency of the NHS by cutting top-heavy administration rather than medical care for the patient was laid out yesterday by John Redwood, Secretary of State for Wales, writes Donald Macintyre.

In a speech in Cardiff, Mr Redwood cautioned the health service in Wales against destroying old hospitals and automatically building new ones in their place.

He said that the 'search for economies should often begin with the consultancy contracts, computer procurement, the paperwork and administration'.

Mr Redwood, who has been in the forefront of arguing that departmental savings can be made through administrative costs rather than through programmes, said he would not be 'very pleased' if the search for economies in the Welsh NHS 'begins and ends with the search for ward closures'.

Mr Redwood defined a new phase for the NHS reforms by saying that he wanted to see 'a smooth transition to high quality small management teams in the hospital replacing many of the middle managers in the health authorities'.

He said that while district authorities in Wales currently had about 100 staff he envisaged that being reduced to around 50.

But Mr Redwood said that 'on the ground' there was a 'restlessness amongst some of the medical staff about the number of men in grey suits, about some of the directions coming from far away offices and about the balance of expenditure between administation and health care'.