News / HFMA 2011: Health secretary reiterates case for management spending cuts

Health secretary Andrew Lansley has stood by his decision to reduce NHS spending on administration, though he acknowledged managers would always have a critical role in the health service.

Mr Lansley told the HFMA annual conference that finance managers had played a crucial role in the NHS over the last few years and would be central to the success of the government’s reforms. He paid particular tribute to finance staff and the HFMA, confirming that chief finance officers would sit on clinical commissioning group boards. The CFO position was crucial to the redesign of service pathways, while the HFMA’s work on clinical costing standards would inform decisions on redesign. He also praised the work of NHS deputy chief executive David Flory and his team at the Department of Health.

‘I understand I am the first health secretary to address your conference in 15 years. I hope that my coming here today demonstrates the importance I attach to your work in the changes to the NHS. Thank you for the work you have done and the work you will do, making the NHS financially stable and sustainable,’ he added.

However, he said the rapid increase in spending on NHS administration in the final year of the last government – when primary care trust and strategic health authority admin spending rose by 23% – had to be reversed.

‘Moving resources from administration to the frontline is tough, but I believe we can make that happen and have high-quality management alongside clinical leadership,’ he said.

‘We are always looking for high-quality management to be integral to the delivery of high-quality care. Spending on management and administration will return to where it was in 2004 so it is not that we are going to under-resource management.’