NHS jobs: - big bonuses for some, job cuts for others

Bureaucrats' bonuses rise as NHS jobs cut - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Bonuses awarded to NHS bureaucrats have soared by nearly a third as thousands of health workers have lost their jobs.

Nearly £1.5 million was paid in bonuses to 231 "senior" civil servants in the Department of Health and related agencies last financial year, a rise of 29 per cent.

NHS trade unions criticised the bonuses, worth an average £6,300 - half a year's pay for many health staff. During the same year, 27,000 NHS posts were cut, with widespread redundancies.

On Friday, Unison, the biggest NHS union, followed the Royal College of Nursing by agreeing to ballot members on industrial action if the Government fails to improve its annual pay offer of 1.9 per cent for most front-line workers.

Karen Jennings, the head of health at Unison, said the bonuses were "totally unfair" and left front-line staff "feeling like second-class citizens". Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said he was "stunned" that the Government could behave with such "crass insensitivity"."


Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Richard Granger, the chief executive of Connecting for Health, the over-budget NHS IT project, has said he will leave his post in October.

Anger as best paid civil servant goes - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Britain's best-paid civil servant is to quit as the head of NHS information technology, claiming the new, accident-prone computer system is on track.

Richard Granger, the chief executive of Connecting for Health, said he would leave the post, and its £290,000-a-year salary, in October. "There is no doubt about the programme's achievability," said Mr Granger, who took up the role in October 2002. "Most of the building blocks are now in place."

Karen Jennings, the head of health at Unison, the NHS's biggest trade union, said Mr Granger's optimism was at odds with the views of the "majority of NHS staff".

She said: "Technically... things are finally coming together. But lessons must be learned from the way these over-ambitious, big-bang IT projects have been brought in late and so over-budget.""