Keir Starmer speaks on plans to reform the civil service at a health care centre in Kingston upon Hull, Britain, on Thursday
Keir Starmer speaks on plans to reform the civil service at a health care centre in Kingston upon Hull, Britain, on Thursday
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday he would scrap a body overseeing the state-funded health system in England in a bid save hundreds of millions of pounds and cut waiting lists and bureaucracy.
Starmer was elected in July on a promise to grow the economy and rebuild public services, including the increasingly costly National Health Service, which an independent report said in September was in a critical condition.
The impact of the Covid pandemic, an ageing population and a series of strikes have left patients waiting months and sometimes years for procedures, dragging on the economy.
In Britain, there are 2.8 million people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Starmer said on Thursday that getting rid of NHS England would remove an unnecessary layer of red tape and mean more financial resources for frontline care in hospitals.
“I can’t, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy,” Starmer said in a speech in the northern English city of Hull. He said the change would mean money for more staff and lower waiting times.
The British government runs the health service in England through its health ministry — the department of health and social care. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland look after their own health systems.
NHS England was established in 2012 by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government as a separate “arms-length” body to helps decide spending priorities, oversee the service in England and negotiate contracts.
Health minister Wes Streeting said on Thursday it had resulted in duplication and too much focus on compliance rather than value for money.
Reform would be “difficult” but would deliver savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year, he said.
NHS England is a quango, which stands for quasi autonomous non-governmental organisation, and stands to lose around 10,000 roles as the organisation is scrapped.
“I don’t see why decisions about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arms-length body, NHS England,” said Starmer.
“So today I can announce we’re going to cut bureaucracy across the state... I’m bringing management of the NHS back under democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England. That will put the NHS at the heart of government where it belongs,” he added.
In wider civil service reforms, Starmer noted that the state had become “bigger, but weaker” and not delivering on its core purpose of getting things done for the British people.
“The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal. Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people,” said Starmer.
At the heart of the Labour government’s changes lie a move towards greater use of technology, including artificial intelligence.
“No person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard,” said Starmer.
Following up on the speech, Streeting told the House of Commons that a “bloated and inefficient bureaucracy cannot be justified” as he confirmed that NHS
England’s work will be merged over the course of the next two years with his department.
“We have been left with two large organisations doing the same roles with an enormous amount of duplication,” the minister told parliament.
“There is always a duty on ministers to get as much value for taxpayers’ money as is possible, and I cannot honestly say that it is achievable with the way that my department and NHS England are set up today.
“Nor can I say that the current set up is getting the best out of our NHS… These reforms will deliver a much leaner top of the NHS, making significant savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year,” he said.