**UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled plans to bring management of the NHS “back into democratic control” by abolishing NHS England.**
Sir Keir said the move will return the NHS “to the heart of government” and lead to a number of benefits, including cutting waiting times and freeing up money for front-line services.
NHS England, originally known as the NHS Commissioning Board, was established in 2012 by the then-Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley and formally came into being in April 2013.
It was set up as a quango, an organisation that operates independently from central government but is funded by public money, to help agree funding and priorities for the NHS, oversee the delivery of NHS services, manage the NHS workforce and negotiate deals.
It is hoped that returning NHS England’s functions to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will strip back layers of red tape and bureaucracy, and help deliver significant savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Sir Keir said in his speech in Hull: “I don’t see why decisions about £200bn of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arms-length body, NHS England… I can’t in all honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy.”
Sir James Mackey, newly appointed NHS England chief executive, will be leading the transformation team, with the aim of completing the process in two years. He commented: “We now need to bring NHS England and DHSC together so we can deliver the biggest bang for our buck for patients, as we look to implement the three big shifts – analogue to digital, sickness to prevention and hospital to community – and build an NHS fit for the future.”
Sir James will be formally taking up the position next month, following Amanda Pritchard’s decision to step down from the role.
Responding to the latest announcement, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “It is… reasonable to want to deliver better value by reducing duplication and waste between two national bodies where they are performing a similar role. It is true that \[during\] its just over a decade of existence, NHS England has been asked to take on a lot more additional power, functions and therefore staff, than it was originally designed to do.
“Having now made the decision to abolish NHS England, and while we still wait for the publication of the NHS 10 Year Plan, the government must be clear why this significant structural change at this time is necessary, and how it fits into their wider plans.”