Government rejects recommended 10% cut in NHS workforce
The UK government has announced that it is rejecting a management review recommendation that the NHS workforce be cut by 10%.
Some have asked, ‘why commission a management review and then ignore the recommendations it makes?’ This should be obvious. We can expect, in the near future, announcements from the government that less money will be available to the NHS, changes to working practice, lower wage reviews, or a combination of these.
The public rejection of advice to make swinging cutbacks is preparation for the announcement of less severe cutbacks later. If the less severe cutbacks were announced without this precursor they would be roundly criticised. The hope is that by preparing the ground with this rejection of this more radical cutback the later, less severe, cutbacks seem comparatively more palatable. Any objection to the less severe cutbacks will be met with protestations that ‘we are doing what we can. It was recommended that a 10% cut was required. We rejected this in favour of this less severe programme.’
This is a very old management tactic and I’m rather surprised no one has raised it in any report I have seen so far.
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