Drop in NHS managers forces doctors to plug gaps, says think tank

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By Jane Kirby, PA

Frontline NHS staff including doctors are increasingly being forced to take on extra duties as the number of NHS managers continues to fall sharply, a leading think tank has warned.

There has been an almost 18.2% drop in the proportion of managers across the health service since 2010 — leaving a “near record low” number of managers per member of staff, according to The King’s Fund.

Doctors and nurses doing spending extra hours on administration tasks such as managing rotas increases burnout.

Analysis of NHS hospital and community data found there are now 33 members of staff for every one manager, compared to 27 in 2010. While the overall NHS workforce has grown by 37% since 2010, the number of managers has only risen by 12%, producing a substantial gap between workforce size and managerial capacity.

Suzie Bailey, the King Fund’s director of leadership and organisational development, said: “The narrative that there are too many managers does not survive contact with reality.