Scrapping NHS England is ‘beginning, not the end’ says Streeting, vowing to cut hundreds of quangos
15 March 2025, 23:25
Scrapping NHS England is "the beginning, not the end", the Health Secretary has said, vowing to continue "slashing bloated bureaucracy".
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It comes after the Prime Minister announced NHS England would be scrapped in a bid to cut government red tape and bureaucracy and bring the health service back under "democratic control."
The move will put the NHS "back at the heart of government where it belongs," Sir Keir said, "freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses."
But speaking to LBC’s Andrew Marr on Thursday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was unable to confirm doctors and nurses would not lose their jobs with this shift in policy - adding that up to 10,000 jobs are at risk.
Wes Streeting has now suggested hundreds more quangos could be in the firing line, saying the abolition of NHS England, which he called ‘the world’s largest quango’ is the “beginning, not the end.”
"Patients and staff alike can see the inefficiency and waste in the health service. My team and I are going through budgets line by line, with a relentless focus on slashing bloated bureaucracy,” he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
NHS England has managed the health service since 2012, when it was established to cut down on political interference in the NHS - something Mr Streeting described as an act of "backside-covering" to avoid blame for failures.
But on Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer announced this would come to an end as he unexpectedly revealed the Government would abolish NHS England in an effort to avoid "duplication".
Mr Streeting has now said more is to come, saying new NHS England chair Penny Dash had "identified hundreds of bodies cluttering the patient safety and regulatory landscape, leaving patients and staff alike lost in a labyrinth of paperwork and frustration".
The move towards scrapping NHS England and other health-related quangos marks a change in direction for Mr Streeting, who in January of this year said he would not embark upon a reorganisation of the NHS.
Watch Again: Andrew Marr is joined by Health Secretary Wes Streeting | 13/03/25
He told the Health Service Journal he could spend "a hell of a lot of time" on reorganisation "and not make a single difference to the patient interest", saying instead he would focus on trying to "eliminate waste and duplication".
He wrote that he had heard former Conservative health ministers "bemoan" not abolishing NHS England, adding: "If we hadn't acted this week, the transformational reform the NHS needs wouldn't have been possible."
The Government expects scrapping NHS England will take two years and save "hundreds of millions of pounds" that can be spent on frontline services.
But during the week, Downing Street would not be drawn on how many people were facing redundancy as a result of the changes.LBC’ Andrew Marr asked Mr Streeting five times if doctors and nurses may face the axe before he confirmed changes in roles would be “inevitable” but new jobs will open “elsewhere” for the frontline staff that may lose their positions.
“We should not be losing frontline staff and services because we have got a bloated bureaucracy and layers and layers of bureaucracy,” he said.
“I can't say there'll be no changes to services. But for example, we've put now almost 1000 more GPs onto the front line since we came in.
“I think the jobs will inevitably change. I think the other thing to say, though, in terms of future projections, we got an NHS where 1 in 9 people in the country are projected to be working for it. If we carried on at the rate of growth in staff numbers for the next 50 years, 100% of the country will be working for the NHS. That's clearly not sustainable. So we are reforming the NHS.”
Mr Streeting said any job losses for doctors and nurses would be a “last resort.”
