To be fair, it's of course not the front line staff's 'fault', but, actually, nor is it necessarily 'the managers', by and large- though they do hold some blame. Mangers dare not go over budget or, ironically, they get fined. And yes, waiting lists do get manipulated because if a patient breaches their 'waiting time', the hospital, yes, gets fined. Which is a great way to make them 'improve', isn't it?
And sadly, the reality of 'efficiency' does boil down to ££. I personally wouldn't be delegating 'the power' back to the nurses- lovely idea but the NHS would be bankrupt within weeks. Budgets that size need handling by experts; and in fact the NHS does suffer a bit by having the upper tiers of middle management being occupied by certain ex-HCPs, and I can assure you they aren't fighting for the front line staff's needs! They're trying to keep moving onwards and upwards on the promotion trail via Keeping Under Budget, at whatever cost. Because that is Their Brief. It's in their job-description.
Another group I certainly wouldn't be delegating power back to is the Consultants. You'll rarely meet such a potentially self-interested group. You have to remember that, with the grades they got at school and uni they'd, were they not doctors, expect to be earning 6 figure salaries out-in-the-world so they demand that within the NHS and many work as if in charge of a personal fiefdom, even today. Do you recall a programme on TV 3 or 4 years ago by Gerry Robinson/Robertson about The NHS where he discovered a key blocker to efficiency was some senior doctors? I recall one anaesthetist going around the stock room labelling everything with its price to make everyone think before using something; her colleague heaped scorn on her as 'he'd use whatever he felt he needed at whatever cost'. Another senior reg was doing knee ops in 2 theatres; coming in when the patient was ready to be operated on, leaving when he'd finished so his junior could sew up and he himself moved to the next theatre to do the same, over and over. He was shunned by his colleagues who wanted to get away to the golf course (lierally!), citing 'safety' as the reason they'd only do one patient from beginning to end, at a time, hence half the number.
We have 'bought' into the concept of free health provision in this country to the extent that it has become a sacred cow. No government of any hue would dare actually bumping up NI and/or tax to the level needed to staff the ever increasing demands made upon the service now, let alone the oncoming elderly care crisis. There'd be an outcry. You only need to see what happens when a local hospital trust tries to shut down a small, inefficient 'cottage' hospital in order to centralise services and preserve money: MPs and locals waving banners, TV cameras trained.
So, in this way, the public is being mislead, too- disregarding the number of appointments casually missed, or drugs not taken, or physio not practised, or.. fags being smoked, alcohol being swilled, or chips being eaten...
Of course I genuinely sympathise with the OP's mum but it's a story being repeated up and down the land, and one that won't go away soon.
And for the record, I am a HCP, a true believer in the NHS but realistic enough to know that the pot will be empty by the time I need such an op.