Managers axed by NHS have been rehired

Labour accused the Government of “handing out cheques like confetti” after Ministers admitted that, between May 2010 and last November, 3,950 staff were made redundant and have since been hired back.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Labour’s Julie Hilling, MP for Bolton West, Health Minister Dan Poulter said: “By reducing managers and administrators by over 21,100, we are freeing up extra resources for patient care – £5.5bn in this Parliament and £1.5bn every year thereafter.

“The number of National Health Service staff estimated to have been made redundant since May 2010 and subsequently, up until November 2013, re-employed by an NHS organisation on (a) a permanent basis is 2,570 and (b) a fixed-term contract basis is 1,380.” Dr Poulter cautioned that the figures, taken from the NHS’s electronic staff record, were “unvalidated”.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “It will be utterly galling for nurses who’ve just had a pay cut from David Cameron to see he’s been handing out cheques like confetti to people who have now been rehired. On his watch, we have seen pay-offs for managers and pay cuts for nurses.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It is important for action to be taken in this area. That is why reforms are being made to redundancy arrangements, including the capping of payouts and the ability to claw back some or all of payments if those individuals concerned return to work within a year of being made redundant.

“When it comes to administrative staff in the NHS, there are now 21,000 fewer administrative posts since 2010.”

He said the contractual reforms to allow the clawback of payments did not apply to the redundancies of the 4,000 staff who have already been rehired, as they would originally have been employed under previous arrangements.

Comment: Page 10.