MEDIA WATCH

Managers facing an uncertain future will not have been surprised by one report covered in the weekend press. It found that stress and unhappiness at work is more likely than back pain to make managers reach for the sick note.

It is well documented that the NHS struggles with higher than average rates of sick leave, and there are sensible documents outlining strategies to tackle it.

Some senior managers will no doubt be hoping that both the government and media take note of the findings, as they lose sleep over the current 'rushed' and 'incoherent' reconfiguration of the NHS.

But even as the service cries out against cuts some say are being made to appease its media and political critics, the dogs bay for more.

The Sunday Express's leader this week called for 'pen-pushers' to be cut to 'give the NHS back its vigour'.

The paper demanded that the service 'must be stripped of bureaucracy' in order 'to see what is really ailing the service and put it right'.

Quite who, once we are left with an anarchic leaderless bunch of services, would be in a position to spot the problems and put them right, is not at all clear.

Presumably Richard 'dirty digger' Desmond's venerable Sunday organ will have the answers next week.

Meanwhile, it seems that some managers are not only despicable scoundrels who waste vast sums on decorative sculptures at the expense of very sick old ladies, but worse.

According to the London Evening Standard they are also, like, so last century.

As the Standard reveals, no-one but noone is buying contemporary art right now: 'If the public sector is skilled at anything, it is skilled at being late on the scene, ' sneers the evening paper that frequently reports the same news several hours later than everyone else.

You have been warned.

Wasteful is one thing, but unfashionable?

Unforgiveable.