Sir Keir Starmer to abolish NHS England to bring heath service ‘back into democratic control’
The Prime Minister has announced NHS England will be abolished in an effort to ‘cut bureaucracy’ and bring the health service ‘back into democratic control’.
Sir Keir Starmer, in a visit to Hull today, promised sweeping reforms which the Government said will deliver better care for patients.
He said decisions about billions of pounds of taxpayer money should not be taken by an ‘arms-length body and the previous Tory government had been mistaken to make NHS England more independent from central government, as he warned the state was ‘weaker than ever’.
The changes will reverse the 2012 shake-up of the NHS under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, which Labour said created ‘burdensome’ layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability.
It is hoped the move will free up cash for doctors, nurses and frontline services and cut red tape to speed up improvements in the health service.
Sir Keir said: “I can’t in all honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy.
“So today, I can announce we’re going to cut bureaucracy, focus Government on the priorities of working people, shift money to the front line. I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body, NHS England.”
Answering a question from a cancer patient on how the decision would improve NHS services, Sir Keir said: “Amongst the reasons we are abolishing it is because of the duplication.
“So, if you can believe it, we’ve got a communications team in NHS England, we’ve got a communications team in the health department of government; we’ve got a strategy team in NHS England, a strategy team in the government department. We are duplicating things that could be done once.
“If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the front line.”
He added that the Government wanted to push power to frontline workers ‘and away from the bureaucracy which often holds them up’.
In a wide-ranging speech, the Prime Minister said that ‘strength abroad’ demands ‘security back at home’, saying the Government must go “further and faster” in delivering reform.
The Government said work would begin ‘immediately’ to return many of NHS England’s functions to the Department of Health and Social Care.
A new leadership team, Sir Jim Mackey and Dr Penny Dash, will oversee this transition while ‘reasserting financial discipline and continuing to deliver on the government’s priority of cutting waiting times’, it said.
