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The Prime Minister announced that NHS England, an arms length body delivering health care, will be abolished with its functions brought into the Department of Health and Social Care to ‘reduce bureaucracy, make savings and empower NHS staff to deliver better care for patients.’
Coming after the resignation of NHS England CEO, Amanda Pritchard, earlier this month, a decision by three Board trustees to step down and a more recent announcement about cuts to staffing at what the government says is ‘the largest quango in the world,’ the decision to abolish the body entirely has come as a surprise.
In an announcement led by the Prime Minister, the government said: “The reforms will reverse the 2012 top-down reorganisation of the NHS which created burdensome layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability.”
The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, added: “When money is so tight, we cannot justify such a complex bureaucracy with two organisations doing the same jobs. We need more doers and fewer checkers, which is why I’m devolving resources and responsibilities to the NHS frontline.”
Back in October, the Department for Health began a lengthy consultation on Change NHS, ‘to build a healthier NHS fit for the future,’ which has seen tens of thousands of people attend consultation events and respond to the call for public engagement in the process.
Responding to the announcement, the leaders of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers issued a joint statement saying it was the end of an era for the NHS. “It comes at an extremely challenging time, with rising demand for care, constrained funding and the need to transform services.”
Referring to the need to prioritise patient care, NHS Confederation chief Matthew Taylor and incoming NHS Providers leader, Daniel Elkeles added: “History tells us this will cause disruption while the transition is taking place,” and “we also need to ensure we get the right balance between recovery and reform given the opportunity provided by the upcoming ten-year plan.”
Committing to work with the government during the transition, they said that NHS leaders must be involved in the process to ensure it goes smoothly and “an optimum operating model” created.
In a separate briefing from the NHS Confederation, it said: “Headcount across both NHS England and the DHSC is expected to be cut by around 50 per cent and it has been reported that the savings could release around £500 million. When combined, the two organisations have a workforce of over 18,000 staff.”
Information on the detail of the transition – and its impact on the ten ambulance trusts in England – is likely to emerge in the coming days and weeks.
Read the full press release from the Department of Health and Social Care.
