Strollin J; I agree, highly inefficient; and as an ex O&M practitioner I could take you to any organisation, anywhere in the world and point out people doing exactly the same things. Three points; hospitals are usually big places, with miles of corridors, and people have to get from one part to another occasionally; hospitals are non-smoking environments for obvious reasons, and the only place smokers can go is usually outside; and finally, the point I was making is that in comparison to the much-lauded private sector, there are actually smaller numbers of managers in the NHS as a proportion of overall staffing; most of these are grossly overworked (as evidenced by the occurrence of stress related diseases and the recorded hours worked.)
I have experience of working in both sectors, for many years. NHS managers stand comparison (as a group) with any I've seen. Try to deal in facts, not easy anecdotes.
Tim