NHS hospitals advertised more than £450,000 worth of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) vacancies in April alone, MailOnline can reveal.
It comes as waiting lists mount and medics stop paying.
Campaigners claimed taxpayers are tired of seeing vital government money that should go to frontline services being wasted on “non-jobs”.
The continued spending on EDI positions within the NHS comes after Health Secretary Steve Barclay called for a ban on hiring diversity officers in parts of the ailing health service.
MailOnline can reveal that a total of 11 NHS EDI positions were posted on job boards in April alone, with a collective salary value of £465,553.
MailOnline found 11 EDI jobs with a combined salary of £465,553 advertised in April alone
The splurge is the equivalent of hiring four family doctors, 12 nurses or 13 paramedics, all of whom the health care system desperately needs.
The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust advertised the highest paid position, offering up to £62,000 for an ‘Equalities Manager’.
The job description states that candidates must have “experience leading Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) improvements” and must “ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are an integral part of the delivery of the Trust’s services and strategies ‘.
Responding to this website’s research, Elliot Keck, research campaign manager for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are tired of seeing vital resources squandered on non-jobs.
“With waiting lists soaring, trusts must focus their resources on providing care and strengthening the front line.
“It’s time for health bosses to crack down on these legitimate roles and put patient priorities first.”
A spokesperson for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘These types of roles help us capture data and take action to ensure we fully understand how best to support our diverse communities in South East London to access access our services and deliver care in a way that properly meets the needs of those who rely on us.’
Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust was another major issuer of EDI rolls in April, posting two vacancies on 11 and 12 April, totaling £56,111.
The trust is looking for two positions: EDI Project Officer, paying up to £32,934, and an EDI Team Manager, paying £23,177.
In addition to their salary, both positions also offer flexible and remote working.
First Community Health and Care, an NHS organization that provides community health care in East Surrey and West Sussex, is also offering a high-paying EDI role in an advertisement posted on April 20.
It offered a salary of up to £54,619 for an EDI Lead on April 20 for a person passionate about ‘equality and inclusion’.
Leicester NHS Trust university hospitals also offered a generous salary of £51,000 for a combined Clinical Fellow in Health Equalities and Inclusion and Emergency Medicine.
The job posting, posted on April 17, describes the role as a 50/50 split between working in the emergency department and working with the Trust’s EDI team.
Similar roles were offered at NHS locations in Leeds, Chesterfield, Birmingham and Solihull, Manchester, Croydon and Bradford.
A spokesperson for Croydon Health Services NHS Trust said: ‘This junior role is a small fee to support our clinical staff to ensure that our care for patients, and our Trust as a place to work, is open and inclusive for all. .’
But the overall spending comes at a time when the £150bn a year NHS is grappling with bursting waiting lists for both routine surgery and cancer diagnosis.
Official data shows that the number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England rose to 7.22 million in February, a new record.
And just this week, a new analysis revealed that some suspected cancer patients may have to wait up to two years for a diagnosis and a year to begin treatment.
It also comes as the NHS struggles to recruit frontline staff, with England’s health service missing nearly 45,000 nurses and 9,000 medics in December, the latest figures available.
Roles such as diversity and inclusion officers aim to promote quality and reduce inequalities in health care, both in treatments and medical expertise.
Salaries for these positions average around £55,000 a year and the NHS spends around £40 million a year on 800 positions, according to research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
The latest releases are a series of massive splurges of taxpayers’ money on NHS EDI rolls.
Data from NHS England shows the number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment rose by 10,000 in January to 7.22 million, a new record
NHS figures show that only 58 per cent of cancer patients started treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral. The NHS’s own rulebook states that at least 85 per cent of cancer patients should be seen within this time frame, but this figure has not been met since December 2015
HM Treasury records show that the NHS received £100.4 billion in 2010/11 and the budget had grown steadily up to 2019. In 2020, the NHS received £129.7 billion in core funding for its usual services, which was supplemented by An additional £18bn to help with the pressures of the pandemic. For 2021/22, the Treasury said the health service will receive £136.1bn of core funding, as well as £3bn to help with Covid recovery
The NHS spends around £150 billion a year, of which just under 43 per cent is spent on staff wages. Graphic shows: A pie chart of the Department of Health and Social Care’s revenue expenditure on the NHS (left) in 2019/20 and areas where spending is seen to have been wasted (right)
In November last year, the health service advertised £700,000 worth of jobs that month.
Numerous ministers have vowed to crack down on EDI roles, arguing that their duties should be chosen by existing senior staff and spending should instead be spent on frontline NHS services.
The latest is Mr Barclay, who wrote a letter last month to the heads of the NHS quangos demanding that they ban diversity officers.
While this only applies to organizations such as the Care Quality Commission, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the UK Health Security Agency, this is the first concrete action he has taken in this area.
In his letter, Mr. Barclay said he believed that diversity and inclusion “is everyone’s responsibility and should be picked up through normal management processes and as part of everyone’s role rather than through the use of external providers or separate dedicated roles within organizations.”
It is believed Mr Barclay was motivated to send the letter after new guidelines were issued for NHS staff to treat all patients as gender neutral.
One of his predecessors, Sajid Javid, also pledged to eradicate “waste or wakery” in healthcare before stepping down.
A spokesman for the UK’s NHS said: ‘The NHS is one of the most efficient health services in the world and spends a much lower proportion of administrative costs than comparable countries in order to provide maximum benefit to the 1.3 million patients who use the health service each year.
get in touch. day, for every pound of tax money.’