Former hospital governor slams 'unhealthy madness' of spending up to £200k per year on new NHS equality and diversity managers in Milton Keynes

A former elected governor of Milton Keynes University Hospital has demanded an end to what he calls an ‘unhealthy madness’ in the use of NHS budgets.

City Alderman Paul Bartlett’s outburst comes as local health bosses advertise a string of senior jobs which cover Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB).

He says the applicants do not need medical knowledge and “may not know the difference between a scalpel and a stroke”.

Bedfordshire Luton and MK Integrated Care Board is currently advertising positions for a Deputy Head of Equality and Inclusion, a Leadership OD and Culture Workforce Programme Manager and six System Culture Transformation Leads.

They will all be based in Bletchley’s Sherwood Place and their salaries are between £48,526 and £67,064 per year. This compares to the average nurse’s wage of £33,000.

Mr Bartlett said: "It's plain stupid that managers' local hospitals want to spend £200,000 plus on three additional different equalities and diversity managers.”

He added: “Ten years ago, a team of medical experts looked after me over Christmas in preparation for the removal of a brain tumour. They are the experts we should be employing...”

"The longer this nonsense goes on, the less confidence patients and their families and frontline medical and orderlies staff will have in the NHS.”

Mr Bartlett continued: "One hopes that health professionals striking and picketing will vent their frustrations at their own Boards rather than sick and dying residents and demand a stop to wastefulness in the highest echelons of our NHS… This madness has to stop".

He is now demanding that every non-medical appointment with a salary over £30,000 should be questioned by the public.

Meanwhile the salaries of some of the top bosses at MK Hospital are higher than that of the Prime Minister. Chief executive Joe Harrison earns between £210,000 and £215,000 a year while Rishi Sunak earns up to £164,080.

In July this year Professor Harrison compared the NHS to a sinking ship, stating at a briefing for NHS leaders: “I think we’re in danger of all sitting around the campfire singing "kumbaya" as the Titanic sinks… We are presiding over a failing NHS.”

BLMK was was set up two years ago at a cost of millions of pounds to seek improvements and cash savings for the NHS.

It brings together 16 partners including MK Hospital, Bedford Hospital and Luton & Dunstable University Hospital, as well as NHS community trusts, ambulance services and local councils.

The position of independent chair was advertised in January 2020 and promptly slammed as a “waste of cash” by critics. The job involved working 1.5 days a week and the salary was “circa £40K”.

A senior source from MK Council said at the time: “Millions and millions of NHS funding, time and effort has been lost to perpetual reviews that achieve nothing. Any potential improvement ideas have been lost to a maze of jargon, a layer of tone deaf NHS administrators and an army of expensive consultants.”

Meanwhile this week a Freedom of Information request from the city’s Labour parliamentary candidates has revealed MK University Hospital Trust spent £3.7m on agency nurses last year to cover then there were not enough staff on shift.

The Citizen approached BLMK about Mr Bartlett’s views but they declined to comment.