THE pay bill for National Health Service bureaucrats has doubled since Tory reforms, claims Labour.

And in some health regions the bill for senior managers has rocketed by more than 500 per cent in just six years.

Figures released after Shadow Health minister Alan Milburn tabled questions in Parliament show salaries for NHS bureaucrats in England are now costing £1,100 million more than before the Government's health service changes.

The cost is £500,000 every day - the price of more than 100 hip replacements.

In the North West, the bureaucratic pay bill shot from £161.64 million in 1989/90 to £305.98 million in 1994/95.

And the managerial pay bill alone rocketed from £18.17 million to £93.47 million in the same period.

"The Tories have saddled the NHS with a bloated bureaucracy which is diverting precious public resources from the sharp end of patient care," claimed Mr Milburn.

"Bureaucracy is a ticking time-bomb inside the NHS, robbing front-line patient services of £500,000 a day in desperately-needed investment.

"The Conservatives have given the NHS more staff to count patients, but fewer to treat them.

"Since 1989, nursing numbers have been cut by 50,000 while the number of managers has risen by almost 20,000.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.