FOLLOWING the revelations about bonus payments to Oxford Area NHS senior management, some of whom are paid six-figure salaries, I accessed freely available information on various NHS websites.

Two were of particular interest: The NHS England organisation structures and the most recent NHS Census results from September 2012.

The high level organisation structures occupied about 90 plus pages of an amazing array of job roles in seven directorates.

I stopped counting after about 50 directors with titles that included director of “Intelligence and Strategy”, director of “Patient and Public Voice and Information” and director of “Patient Experience”, with job role titles that included “open matter and subject matter experts”.

It was a mind-numbing read.

The 2012 Census was no less “interesting”.

In the 400 NHS organisations and 8,000 GP practices were 1,358,000 employees, of which there were 40,000 consultants, 40,000 GPs, 369,000 nurses, 349,000 clinical support staff, 37,000 managers and senior managers, more than 100,000 admin staff and a bewildering amount of jargon.

I lost count after that.

Thankfully, the census showed a small decrease in management staff but an equally small increase in clinical staff.

The real issue is whether this massive organisation is delivering the health service we expect.

Should public servants on six-figure salaries be receiving bonuses paid for by our taxes and will the latest, or any other organisational changes, improve what appears to be a continuing saga of revelations and difficulties.

Answers on something a lot larger than a postcard!

IAN CUMMINGS, Gibson Close, Abingdon