Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has been quizzed on whether nurses will lose their jobs due to the upcoming dissolution of NHS England.
Yesterday, prime minster Sir Keir Starmer announced that NHS England would be abolished as a standalone organisation, with its functions brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
“I can’t say there will be no changes to services”
Wes Streeting
This decision was, the department said, made to save money, reduce bureaucracy and “empower staff” to deliver better patient care.
Mr Streeting, who runs DHSC as secretary of state, appeared on LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr show after the announcement to answer questions about the potential impact of abolishing NHS England, and why the decision was made.
Host Mr Marr said that some NHS bosses would be looking at budgets in the wake of NHS England’s dissolution and thinking they may have to cut frontline nursing and medical staff.
He asked the health secretary to “look me in the eye” and tell him that this would not happen.
The health secretary said it “should not” happen because of the cost savings that would come from cutting bureaucracy.
“I can’t say there will be no changes to services,” he added, when asked again whether losing nurses and doctors could happen.
Mr Marr pressed the health secretary further, and Mr Streeting said in response: “Other jobs will also become available. One of the things we’re doing is changing the ways services are delivered and shifting the centre of gravity out of hospitals closer to communities.”
He added: “The jobs [of nurses and doctors] will inevitably change…
“We’ve got an NHS where one in nine people are projected to be working for it [and] if we carried on at the rate of growth in staff numbers [within] the next 50 years 100% of the country would be working for the NHS.
“That’s clearly not sustainable.”
Mr Streeting denied being “evasive” in his response, and said that shedding staff “should be the last resort for frontline leaders”.
“I’ve got to trust frontline leaders to do the right thing,” said Mr Streeting.
“Of course they’re going to prioritise frontline services, that does mean more doctors, more nurses and better care and services available to people at the right time and the right place.
“The reason I was being careful about my words is because inevitably there will be some service changes where a doctor or a nurse might be employed in one place, and that may change, but they should find jobs elsewhere.”
The conversation between Mr Marr and Mr Streeting appeared to be focused on the future of frontline nurses’ jobs within trusts amid the wider NHS reform programme planned by the government.
However, there is also a direct risk to nurse jobs from the abolition of NHS England, as many nurses work at the arm’s-length body itself such as the national and regional chief nurses.
It is estimated that the move will lead to the cutting of roughly 10,000 jobs; around half of DHSC office staff, and around half of NHS England’s current headcount, are expected to be let go. It is unknown at this stage if, or how many, nurses will be affected.
On Thursday, Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger demanded that nursing has a prominent voice within DHSC when all of NHS England’s functions are folded into the government.
“As the largest workforce in the NHS, delivering the vast majority of care, it is vital our expertise is heard at the top table of government,” she said.
“The chief nurse must have a place alongside the other new medical directors within the department.”
Read more about the NHS reforms
