SPIRALLING management costs at Ipswich Hospital have been criticised today as it emerged managers' pay had shot up by much more than nurses and midwives.
SPIRALLING management costs at Ipswich Hospital have been criticised today as it emerged managers' pay had shot up by much more than nurses and midwives.
The amount spent on wages of managers and senior managers at the cash-strapped hospital in 2005/6 was more than two-and-a-half times higher than it had been in 1999/2000.
However in 2005/6 the amount spent on paying nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff was just 1.7 times the amount spent in 1999/2000.
The figures, released following a question from Stowmarket and Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley to the Department of Health, have drawn criticism from the Patient and Public Involvement Forum set up to monitor Ipswich Hospital.
Prue Rush, spokeswoman for the forum, said: “In all businesses' managers are taking huge bonuses and pay rises.
“It is sad that we are finding that in the health service there are high management costs as well.
“There is no doubt that the nurses do not have the same power to ask for money that the managers do.
“Management will say if you pay peanuts you'll get monkeys, but it seems harsh that those that are already getting more money than others see a bigger percentage increase.
“If they can, in all conscience, accept these pay rises there is nothing we can do about it.
“But if they are going to have these pay rises they have to be worth the money.”
Jan Rowsell, spokeswoman for Ipswich Hospital management, said: “We're fully transparent about all our management costs and management awards. They are reported each year in our annual report and audited accounts.
“What they show is that actually we are a low-cost organisation, we do well when you look at national averages.
“Looking back to 1999 the organisation has changed tremendously in the last seven years. There have been very considerable service developments and a completely new pay award scheme called Agenda For Change.”
The figures
Amount paid by Ipswich Hospital
Managers and senior managers - 1999/2000: 2,127,000, 2005/6: 5,786,000
Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff - 1999/2000: 20,050,000, 2005/6: 34,980,000
Administrative and clerical staff - 1999/2000: 5,078,000, 2005/6: 11,43,000
SOURCE: Department of Health
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