News Tonight Africa

According to a new report that has attracted a lot of attention, the health service in the United Kingdom has spent more than £90 million in redundancy payments to the staff and it rehired the staff.

According to a government response to a query, a total of 2,641 staff were laid off and rehired during the three years from April 2012. The average pay out for laying off was more than £36,000 in some years. These employees received a total of £92 million in redundancy during that period. The report also showed that tens of thousands more might have been spent on almost 3,000 additional staff laid off and rehired.

The laying off and rehiring happened before the controversial shake up of the NHS in early 2012 led by former health secretary Andrew Lansley.Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, said that the patients who are made to wait for longer hours will feel angry over the matter.Lansley's Health and Social Care Act abolished 161 NHS bodies and created hundreds of new institutions in order to give more control to GPS over the NHS budget.

It was known earlier that NHS paid hefty fee to consultants and monitors. Almost £160 million was paid to management consultants attracting much criticism as the service is under severe financial strain. However, NHS England was found to have paid consultants £101 million and financial regulator Monitor paid £47 million at a time when shortage of finances is impact healthcare in the country.