“I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control, by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England.” says Sir Keir Starmer.
After the departure of a number of executives in the last week, including chief executive Amanda Pritchard, it was clear that significant change was coming. It has also been known for some time that the Health Secretary had reservations about NHSE’s ability to deliver change on the scale he demanded.
Starmer’s position is that over time, the roles of NHSE and DHSC have blurred, with overlap and duplication of efforts, describing it as “two layers of bureaucracy”. Earlier this week, it was announced that NHSE would be required to cut 50% of their central staff and were scoping voluntary redundancy for all staff. DHSC also told their staff that there there would be a voluntary redundancy programme across the department.
In light of the above, NHSE and DHSC will merge their functions into a single, central government function – but exactly how this will look is currently unclear.
In a speech in Parliament today, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said:
“Lord Darzi’s review traced the roots of the crisis back to the 2012 top-down reorganisation of the NHS, by then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. The Health and Social Care Act established more than 300 extra NHS organisations, creating a complicated bureaucracy.
There are now more than twice as many staff working in NHS England and DHSC than in 2010. Today the NHS delivers worse care for patients but is more expensive than ever before. We have two large organisations doing the same work, with an enormous amount of duplication. Such bloated and inefficient bureaucracy cannot be justified. Frontline NHS staff are drowning in micromanagement. There are talented and committed public service working at every level of the NHS. The reforms announced today are not a reflection of them.
Work has already begun to strip out the duplication between the two organisations, and bring many of NHS England’s functions into the Department. NHS England will have a much clearer focus over this transformation period. It will be in charge of holding local providers to account for the outcomes that really matter; cutting waiting times and managing finances. NHSE is also tasked with realising the untapped potential of our health service as a single-payer public service; getting a better deal for taxpayers through central procurement; being a better customer to medical technology innovators; and being a better partner to the life sciences sector.
Over the next two years, NHS England will be brought into the Department entirely, making significant savings. They will set local NHS providers free to innovate and deliver better care for patients.”
BIVDA’s Director of Policy and Programmes, Paul Fisher said “The news that NHSE is to be disbanded is not surprising – but the speed with which it has happened is. Combined with the announcement that ICB’s are being required to reduce operational running costs by half, there is clearly going to be significant change within the NHS in 2025.
BIVDA will continue to work closely with government to ensure diagnostics remain at the heart of healthcare. With tests vital to deliver the government’s three shifts, we call on the government to continue to work to assess the value of MedTech better, to streamline NHS procurement, and to continue to support the UK IVD industry.”
