Keir Starmer dramatically abolished NHS England today, with Ministers branding it “the world’s largest quango”, as he launched an assault on the “flabby, unfocused and over-cautious” state. The Mail has more.
The PM used a speech to deliver a damning verdict on the performance of the public sector, saying huge expansion in numbers had not worked.
He announced that NHS England will be abolished altogether, saying it would bring health provision back under “democratic control”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting had already declared he would dramatically curb the body – which ministers have labelled the “world’s largest quango”.
NHS England is the central bureaucracy that controls more than £190 billion a year of funding for health and has 15,000 staff.
Its functions will be taken over by the Department of Health over the next two years, with headcount cut by 9,000 – although it is not clear how many of those will be deployed elsewhere.
Mr Streeting said there would be “hundreds of millions of pounds” of savings.
The NHS England Chief Executive and National Medical Director both resigned in recent weeks as the scale of the overhaul became clear.
It effectively reverses a huge reorganisation pushed through under the Coalition. It was welcomed by Tories including Jeremy Hunt, although he pointed out that Mr Streeting previously ruled out “top down reorganisation”.
NHS bosses voiced caution, saying there will be “disruption” and patient care must be “prioritised”.
Sir Keir told the audience in Hull that Government was employing “more people than we’ve employed for decades”.
“Yet look around the country, do you see good value everywhere? Because I don’t,” he said. “I actually think it’s weaker than it’s ever been.”
Sir Keir said he believed in “active government” but that did not mean it should be “bigger”.
While being careful to praise civil servants, Sir Keir complained that Whitehall in general has not managed to improve frontline services.
However, the intervention has already drawn a furious response from unions who branded it “unrealistic” and insulting. Ministers have been playing down suggestions of wide scale jobs cuts, arguing that efficiency is the real goal.
No 10 has been forced to deny that the initiative has been nicknamed ‘Project Chainsaw’ internally.
Downing Street said the reference to Trump adviser Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw to represent his cuts to government spending was “juvenile”.
Sir Keir said abolishing NHS England will reduce “duplication”, saving money that can then be spent on frontline services.
Answering a question from a cancer patient on how the decision would improve the situation, the premier 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 statement, Mr Streeting said: “This is the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history.”
How will it save hundreds of millions if all the overpaid quangocrats keep their jobs and are just moved elsewhere? Something doesn’t add up here.
Worth reading in full.
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