"NHS England to be axed as role returns to government control"

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Starmer announces he is abolishing NHS England



NHS England will be abolished and brought under "democratic control" in an attempt to cut bureaucracy and duplication, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.

The organisation, which oversees the country's health service, will be brought into the Department of Health, and the PM said the move would free up money for frontline services.

The government said it expected around 50% of the jobs at NHS England, which as of December had 14,400 staff, and the Department of Health, which has 3,500 staff, to go.

In a speech in Hull, Sir Keir said for too long politicians had "chosen to hide behind vast arrays of quangos" - organisations funded by taxpayers but not directly controlled by the government.

The government said work would begin immediately to return many of NHS England's current functions to the Department of Health and Social Care, with the aim of completing the process in two years.

The significant move gives the government more control and accountability over one of their key pledges - to cut NHS waiting times.

NHS England - which the government dubbed "the world's largest quango" - oversees the health service, working with government to agree funding and priorities, as well as monitoring the performance of local NHS services.

It was given autonomy by the then-Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in 2012, with the aim of freeing the organisation from interference by politicians.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the changes would "liberate" frontline workers from excessive and "competing directions".

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's PM programme, he said the result would be "better value for taxpayers and better outcomes for patients because the hundreds of millions of pounds we can save will be redeployed to the front line delivering better care".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the move to bring the management of the health service back under ministerial control, but warned Labour "cannot hide if things go wrong".

She did not have "high hopes" because Labour already ran the NHS in Wales and that was "doing a lot worse than the rest of the country", she said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey backed the plans, but argued they were not the main issue for the NHS.

To fix it, the government needed to focus on "getting more GPs, more NHS dentists, more community pharmacists, making sure that social care actually works", he said.

The Health Foundation think tank warned the reorganisation would distract senior leaders.

And Sharon Graham, head of the Unite union, said: "Taking an axe to these jobs is an ill-thought-out strategy that could end up meaning frontline healthcare staff struggle to do their jobs effectively if they aren't paid on time, don't have basic medical supplies or are forced to do additional administrative work rather than treat patients."

The news comes after senior NHS England figures including chief executive Amanda Pritchard and medical director Sir Stephen Powis announced they were stepping down.

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Anyone want to bet there won't be even more bureaucrats running the NHS in five year's time than there are now?