In a significant policy shift, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that NHS England will be abolished, with its responsibilities brought back under the Department of Health and Social Care.
The prime minister said the independent body which runs the NHS would go in a move to cut red tape and dramatically reduce costs by cutting duplication.
The reform, which marks a departure from the health service structure implemented over a decade ago, is expected to lead to a significant reduction in administrative roles, with approximately half of NHS England’s workforce set to be impacted.
Ministers argue that the restructuring will result in hundreds of millions of pounds in annual savings, which will be redirected towards reducing patient waiting times and improving direct care.
Speaking in Yorkshire, Sir Keir outlined his vision for a leaner, more efficient NHS, stating: “We are committed to cutting bureaucracy across government, ensuring that resources are focused where they are most needed – on patient care. By bringing NHS management back under democratic control, we can ensure that every pound is spent in the interests of the public.”
The Prime Minister highlighted the issue of duplication within NHS England, referencing parallel teams in both NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care working on similar tasks. He described the change as a necessary step to eliminate inefficiencies, allowing for a clearer, more effective approach to healthcare management.
The move follows a wave of senior departures from NHS England, including its chief executive and medical director, and represents a fundamental shift in how the health service is administered.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the decision, stating: “This marks the end of a structure that has not delivered the efficiency and effectiveness our NHS needs. Our priority is to ensure that the health service is focused on delivering timely, high-quality care to patients.”
Nuffield Trust Chief Executive Thea Stein said: “Today’s news will be devastating for staff at all levels of NHS England, and we must remain mindful of the human cost of this decision. With the public finances under extraordinary pressure it does, however, make sense to remove the duplication and bureaucracy that exists currently – and patients and the public are probably not going to shed many tears over the shifting of power from an arm’s-length body into central government.”
“But profound problems facing the NHS remain: how to meet growing patient need in the face of spiralling waiting lists and how to invest in care closer to home with the NHS’s wider finances already underwater and social care reform in the long grass. It is not immediately clear that rearranging the locus of the power at the top will make a huge and immediate difference to these issues, which ultimately will be how patients and the public judge the Government.”
“Furthermore, the Government should be careful that this doesn’t lead to even more top-down micro-management of local services from Whitehall, which has been the bane of the health service. NHS England was set up to take the politics out of the NHS, but today politics has taken out NHS England.”
The planned restructuring has sparked discussions within the healthcare sector, with questions being raised about the potential impact on local NHS services, staffing, and long-term planning. The government has assured that while administrative changes will take place, patient care will remain the top priority, with a renewed focus on cutting waiting times and improving outcomes.
As details of the transition unfold, those working in the residential and nursing care sectors will be closely monitoring how these changes will influence care provision, staffing structures, and resource allocation in the coming months.
