Bureaucrats Pay Explosion - Leigh-on-Sea

Share this story!

Leigh On Sea News: Bureaucrats Pay Explosion – RAYLEIGH and Wickford MP Mark Francois has highlighted an explosion in the pay of NHS regional bureaucrats, based in Cambridge.

Bureaucrats Pay Explosion - RAYLEIGH and Wickford MP Mark Francois has highlighted an explosion in the pay of NHS regional bureaucrats, based in Cambridge.

RAYLEIGH and Wickford MP Mark Francois has highlighted an explosion in the pay of NHS regional bureaucrats, based in Cambridge.

According to a Parliamentary Question, tabled by Mr Francois recently and answered by Karin Smyth MP, Minister of State for Secondary Care, in financial year 2021/22 the NHS East of England Headquarters (which covers Essex) employed 600 full time equivalent staff on a pay bill of just over £39 million. In the financial year just ending, 2024-25, this had increased to 637 full time equivalent staff, but their pay had ballooned to just under £59 million.

Mr Francois, who served on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (Parliament’s financial watchdog) in the previous Parliament, says the final total is likely to be higher because, as the answer points out, that figure only relates to the first 10 months of the financial year.

Commenting on this revelation, Mr Francois said: “With NHS services in South Essex already under serious pressure, despite the best efforts of the frontline staff who work in them, it’s extremely disappointing to learn that we have over 600 senior bureaucrats based in Cambridge, second guessing the day-to-day work of the frontline hospital trusts.

“Given the severe financial problems in the Mid and South Essex Hospital Trust, it seems that the NHS at regional level is struggling to control its budget too.

“Bluntly, you could perform quite a lot of knee replacement operations (for which there is now a year’s delay at Southend) with £60 million.”

Picture: MP Mark Francois.

about author

Editor