‘Wasteful at Best’: NHS Slammed for Spending Over £1 Mln on ‘Woke’ Staff Groups as Crisis Looms

Earlier in August, UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay admitted that the country’s National Health Service faces a “sprint” to tackle the looming threat of flu, a new COVID-19 wave and the cost of living crisis.

More than £1million ($1.18 million) has been spent by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) on hundreds of “woke” staff networks over the past three years, the Daily Mail has reported.

The “woke” events, which were held under the banner of “equality, diversity and inclusion,” come at a time when the NHS is in desperate need of extra cash for patient care.

The Mail cited the audit by the TaxPayers' Alliance group as finding that the “woke” staff networks include at least 493 groups established by health trusts across Britain.

Some groups reportedly defied ministers’ calls for the NHS to cut back on “waste and wokery,” using taxpayers' money to hold events pertaining to transgender issues, as well as sexuality and racism, often during the workday.

According to the Mail, the events included “tea and rainbow cake” picnics, a special session about pronouns and a Filipino martial arts performance. The newspaper reported that it had taken around 36,000 hours of staff time a year to run the gatherings.

The events reportedly took up a total of 108,807 hours of staff time and cost the taxpayers £1,081,878 ($1,279,715) within the period of three years, even though the real figures will most likely be even higher given that just 111 out of more than 230 trusts responded to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Elliot Keck, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, told the Mail that many of these “woke” staff networks are “a questionable use of NHS time and taxpayers' money.”

“While Brits wait patiently for their appointments and operations, NHS middle managers are busy organising right-on lectures and social events. Health chiefs need to scale back some of these unnecessary 'woke' networks”, Keck emphasized.

He was echoed by Conservative MP David Jones, who argued that “when patients are being denied operations and waiting too long for care, expending taxpayers' money on networks like this seems wasteful at best and sinful at worst.”

Jones' fellow Tory MP, Sir Christopher Chope, for his part underscored that “the funding and staff time going into these groups is symptomatic of the waste within the NHS.” Chope urged UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay to “use it as an example of how existing funds could be spent more efficiently next time bosses ask for more.”

An NHS spokesperson, in turn, struck a different tone, claiming that “while it is down to individual trusts to decide how they best support their own staff, these voluntary networks provide a channel to address concerns from a wide range of staff, which helps improve services for patients.”

The remarks come after Barclay told the Telegraph about the tough challenges that the NHS will have to grapple with in the immediate future. With the looming triple threat of a seasonal flu, another likely wave of COVID-19 and the fall-out from the cost of living squeeze, Barclay said that the NHS needed to make rapid decisions without waiting for a new Prime Minister to take over from Boris Johnson, who announced his resignation on July 7.

Barclay emphasized that hiring more staff from overseas was one of the pending decisions that could not be postponed as civil servants are predicting long waits at hospitals this winter.

“We have very real challenges coming down the track in the autumn and winter, and as far as I’m concerned there needs to be a real sprint within Whitehall, and particularly in the Department of Health, to get ready for September,” he pointed out.

The stand was shared by Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the membership organization NHS Confederation, who warned that the NHS is likely to experience the “most difficult winter on record.”