Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to abolish NHS England and bring the health service under government control.
Giving a speech on his plans for civil service reform today, the Prime Minister has confirmed he will scrap the “arms-length body” NHS England.
Sir Keir said the decision will see the management of the health service brought “back into democratic control” and put the NHS “back at the heart of government where it belongs”.
He said: “I can’t in all honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy.
“That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments.”
Starmer added: “So today I can announce… I am bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England.
“That will put the NHS back at the heart of government where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses.
“An NHS refocused on cutting waiting times at your hospital”.
NHS duplication
NHS England is the body which leads the National Health Service in England, and is responsible for “statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers” and focused on “supporting and overseeing the wider NHS to deliver effective and high quality care”.
During a Q&A following his speech, Starmer was asked by a cancer patient how the decision would improve NHS services.
He 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 the 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”.
