NHS in a sick state

We have all been focussing on the deficit in the NHS. This, however, is not the greatest example of waste on a shocking scale. This shows the money lost by incompetence. The casual attitude to a very considerable sum of money "it's only 1%" is stunning. 1% it may be but it is a hell of a lot of money that could be better used elsewhere in the system or, even better, not abstracted from the likes of you and me.
The high point of my civilian career saw me in charge of a budget of just over £8 million. Much of that was fixed for items such as rent, commercial rates and staff costs where there was little or no managerial talent required. Other items, both Capital and Expense, had to be summarised, costed, proposed and fought for as much as 4 years ahead of committment. I had a good level at which I could authorise expenditure but anything not budgetted led to a long and bloody battle. The budget was on constant audit of actual against budget costs and I was called to explain items on a fortnightly basis. This is not (only)(just) self-aggrandisment but as background to my being unable to see just how things could go so wrong.
It would seem there is a lack of financial control. Trusts have very large budgets but these come from cost cenbtres which are easily controlled - if anyone chooses to do so.
The waste is immense. I've spoken to IT professionals involved in the NHS. There is a small circle of companies that do this work. Designers writing software yesterday for ward cleaning schedules are today getting to grips with sophisticated algorithms for brain surgery. None can have the spread of knowledge required and that have to rely on the user specifying what the programme should do. Excellent doctors have difficulty - it seems - in relating their dreams to reality and programmes as delivered either fail altogether or are little better than the pencil and paper systems they were meant to replace.