Sir Keir Starmer has announced NHS England, the arms-length executive body that makes decisions about the day-to-day operation of the NHS, will be abolished.
The Prime Minister revealed the move during a speech in Hull, which focused on his plans to reform the civil service and regulation services.
He 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, GP appointments.
‘So today I can announce we’re going to cut bureaucracy across the state, focus government on the priorities of working people, shift money to the front line.
‘So I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England.’
NHS England employs around 13,000 people, overseeing budgets and planning for the health service which has around 1.5 million workers.
It was created in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
In his speech this morning, the PM said the abolition of the organisation would ‘put the NHS back at the heart of government, where it belongs’.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘This is the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history.
‘When money is so tight, we can’t justify such a complex bureaucracy with two organisations doing the same jobs.
‘We need more doers, and fewer checkers, which is why I’m devolving resources and responsibilities to the NHS frontline.’
Staff in the health service are ‘working flat out but the current system sets them up to fail’, he added.
In a statement to parliament updating MPs on the move, Streeting said his Department of Health had been taking a ‘one-team approach’ to working with NHS England since the election, and the change would simply mean turning ‘one team into one organisation’.
A release sent out by the department immediately after the speech described NHS England as ‘the world’s largest quango’, which stands for Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation.
Answering a cancer patient’s question about the potential impact of the decision, Sir Keir said: ‘Amongst the reasons we are abolishing it is because of the duplication.
‘So, if you can believe it, we’ve got a communications team in NHS England, we’ve got a communications team in the health department of government.
‘We’ve got a strategy team in NHS England, a strategy team in the government department.
‘We are duplicating things that could be done once. If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the front line.’
It was recently announced that the workforce at NHS England would be cut in half, but the PM’s statement shows the cuts will go much further.
UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said staff would be left ‘reeling’ by today’s news.
She continued: ‘Just days ago they learned their numbers were to be slashed by half, now they discover their employer will cease to exist.
‘The way the news of the axing has been handled is nothing short of shambolic. It could surely have been managed in a more sympathetic way.’
Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard announced in February she would be stepping down, while three other members of the top team also said they would leave at the end of this month.
The transition will be overseen by interim CEO Sir James Mackey and incoming NHS England chair Dr Penny Dash, and Downing Street has said it is expected to take around two years.
Alex Burghart, the Conservative Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the opposition supports ‘measures to streamline NHS management and the principle of taking direct control’.
He added: ‘Labour ministers now have nowhere to hide or anyone else to blame on NHS performance.
‘The NHS is run directly by Labour in Wales where they have created the highest waiting lists and longest waiting times in Britain.’
Lib Dem health spokesperson Helen Morgan said her party welcomes ‘this step in the right direction’, but added: ‘The sad fact remains that none of this will matter unless the Health Secretary stops ignoring the elephant in the room: social care.
‘You cannot fix the NHS without fixing social care, no matter how much unnecessary bureaucracy is slashed.’
