NHS England ,the administrative body which runs the national health service , will be abolished in a bid to slash red tape, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.
The prime minister said he was scrapping the “arms-length body” to bring management of the NHS “back into democratic control” .
The move will see the organisation – set up in 2013 by former Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley to give the NHS greater independence and autonomy – brought back under the control of Department of Health and Social Care.
Sir Keir said the result would end the duplication that arose from the two organisations doing the same job, freeing up staff to focus on patients and putting more resources on the frontline.
Delivering a speech in East Yorkshire, the prime minister 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 and GP appointments.
“So I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arm’s 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.”
It comes after a number of senior NHS England executives announced they will soon be stepping down, including its boss Amanda Pritchard, its chief financial officer Julian Kelly, chief operating officer Emily Lawson and chief delivery officer Steve Russell.
Sir Keir said the “tough choices” he was making did not just stop with NHS England, as he confirmed the government would send AI teams in to every government department to boost efficiency and make savings.
He described AI as a “golden opportunity” to reform the state, which he said was “weaker that it has ever been -overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly, unable to deliver the security that people need”.
“The good news is technology can massively help if we push forward with digital reform of government, and we are going to do that,” he continued.
“We can make massive savings, £45bn of savings in efficiencies, and AI is a golden opportunity.”
The prime minister rejected claims that his announcement – which comes on top of plans to slash the UK’s ballooning welfare bill and warnings of job losses in the civil service – amounted to a return of austerity championed by previous Conservative administrations.
Asked by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby whether he was breaking his election pledge not to return to austerity, he replied: “There is no return to austerity. I said that to you before the election, and we’re not going to austerity.”
Turning to welfare, the prime minister defended his rumoured plans to cut the bill by billions, saying: “We must support those that need support, but equally we must help who want to get back into work, into work. And at the moment, the system doesn’t do that.”
In a statement in the Commons following the prime minister’s speech, Health Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the abolition of NHS England as the “final nail in the coffin of the Conservatives disastrous top-down organisation”.
He cited a report by the non-affiliated peer Lord Dazi, whose report into the health service blamed the 2012 reorganisation of the NHS for creating a “fragmented web of bureaucracy”.
