EXCLUSIVE Is this cosy WFH shed in a shady spot at the bottom of the garden where sleepy Sir Jim Mackey runs the NHS?
Nestled in a shady corner of his large garden and tastefully furnished with a desk and cream sofa, Sir Jim Mackey’s shed – or garden office – is described by his wife as a ‘calming space’.
Nestled in a shady corner of his large garden and tastefully furnished with a desk and cream sofa, Sir Jim Mackey’s shed – or garden office – is described by his wife as a ‘calming space’.
An artfully arranged cushion emblazoned with the word ‘Escape’ encapsulates the vibe.
Could this, then, be where Sir Jim, the new chief executive of NHS England, is running the health service from during at least part of the week?
The idea that the NHS is being run from a garden shed might seem astonishing. Yet for more than 48 hours now, NHS England has mysteriously been unable to expressly deny it.
Sir Jim’s working arrangements were thrown into the spotlight last week after pictures emerged of him snoozing on a first-class train in the middle of the working day.
The Daily Mail revealed yesterday that the £300,000-a-year health boss commutes 1,200 miles a week between his London office and his home in Northumberland.
It means he runs the NHS – with its 1.5million staff and £186billion budget – while spending about 16 hours travelling, with at least two days a week working from his home town.
Last week, Sir Jim, 58, worked in London on Monday and Tuesday morning, before catching a train to Newcastle at 2.30pm and returning to his £780,000 bungalow in time for dinner with wife Victoria.
An artfully arranged cushion emblazoned with the word ‘Escape’ encapsulates the vibe
Last week, Sir Jim, 58, worked in London on Monday and Tuesday morning, before catching a train to Newcastle at 2.30pm and returning to his £780,000 bungalow in time for dinner with wife Victoria (pictured together)
Sir Jim’s working arrangements were thrown into the spotlight last week after pictures emerged of him snoozing on a first-class train in the middle of the working day
On Wednesday he worked in the North East. Then on Thursday he caught the train back to London, but returned 300 miles home again that same afternoon.
He is understood to have worked in the NHS’s Newcastle office for at least part of each of the last two Wednesdays.
But the NHS declined to detail his hours or if he spent time working from his nearby home.
It has fuelled speculation that, for at least part of the week, the NHS supremo is overseeing his crusade to slash waste and inefficiency from his shed.
Writing on Instagram, his wife Lady Mackey said of the office: ‘I love this room. It feels like a little bit of a retreat, and calming space.’
Similar garden rooms cost £30,000.
NHS England said Sir Jim ‘has been working in NHS offices across the country but, given that running the health service is not a nine-to-five job, he also works evenings and weekends from home’.