MPs have raised concerns over the government’s plans to abolish NHS England which could lead to thousands of job losses.
Sir Keir Starmer said he wants to abolish NHS England and bring it back into “democratic control,” and Wes Streeting the Health Secretary said this will offer better value for money.
The Prime Minister said this will place the NHS “back at the heart of government where it belongs,” he added, “freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses.”
Starmer said the NHS will “refocus” to cut waiting times at “your hospital.”
Downing Street has said the shut down of NHS England will take around two years as this is a “necessary measure.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said delivering artificial intelligence and digitalisation of the health service will free up some £45 billion, this can be spent on other areas of the NHS.
In a statement to MPs in the Commons, Streeting said, “These reforms will deliver a much leaner top of the NHS, making significant savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year. That money will flow down to the front line, to cut waiting times faster, and deliver our plan for change.
“By slashing through the layers of red tape and ending the infantilisation of frontline NHS leaders, we will set local NHS providers free to innovate, develop new, productive ways of working and focus on what matters most, delivering better care for patients.”
Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew warned there is “no guarantee of success,” but the former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Starmer’s “boldness” of the plan to abolish NHS England.
Mayhew said, The Secretary of State rightly said in his statement that change is hard, it is I’m afraid inescapable that whilst this reform is ongoing the NHS leadership is going to be hugely distracted with turf wars, redundancies, and developing new working practices.
“So what steps is the Secretary of State going to take to prevent that distraction from having a negative effect on frontline services?”
Streeting replied: “There will always be people who say it’s too hard, it’s too difficult, it’s a distraction – that is how we’ve ended up with this status quo.
“That is how the party opposite presided over the longest waiting lists and the lowest patient satisfaction on record, at the same time as spending staggering amounts of public money.
“So more money and no reform is not the answer.”
Hunt told MPs in the Commons, “Can I commend the boldness of today’s announcement? If the NHS is going to be turned around it is going to need radical reforms.
“If the result today is to replace bureaucratic overcentralisation with political overcentralisation, it will fail. But if what happens today is that we move to the decentralised model that we have for the police and for schools, it could be the start of a real transformation.”
He then asked if central targets will also be cut and what role will the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) take?
The Health Secretary said, “Democratic accountability matters, both in terms of patient outcomes and value for taxpayers’ money.
“This overcentralisation has got to stop. For the future it will be for the department and the NHS nationally to do those things that only the National Health Service can do, providing the enablers for the system as a whole.
“What we are presiding over and embarking on is the biggest decentralisation of power in the history of our National Health Service.”
He added that the CQC is the “best guarantee and safeguard of quality that patients and the public deserve.”
Labour MP Kevin McKenna, who worked in the NHS for 26 years as a nurse said, “My heart goes out today to so many people who have insecurity about their jobs following this announcement, even though I believe it to be the right one.”
She added, “One of the things I am concerned about is making sure that clinical leadership is still heard at the centre.
“As a nurse, I found it harder to get into NHS England, doctors and their career structures do find it more easy, and moving everything NHS England functions into to the department, moving off of NHS terms and conditions will make it harder for nurses, allied health professionals and other clinicians working in the NHS.”
Streeting replied: “I did not take this decision with the Prime Minister lightly, indeed it wasn’t my instinct coming into Government, but has certainly been shaped by what I’ve seen and experienced eight months.
“Clinical leadership is vital, and that’s not just doctors, that’s also about nurses and other clinical leadership.”
