Healthwatch York hits back at Streeting's 'ventriloquist' label

Mr Streeting suggested the patient safety landscape is “cluttered”, with NHS leaders receiving “competing and contradictory instructions” from different organisations.

On the plans to scrap organisations like Healthwatch, Mr Streeting said: “There are way too many checkers and not enough doers in the system.”

However, manager of Healthwatch York Siân Balsom has said that without the patient group it will be harder to tackle health inequalities and move care into the community.

She said: “Every day we listen to people’s stories, connect them to people and support that makes a difference to their lives and raise the voices of those too often overlooked in our health and care system.

“We constructively challenge partners as needed with the power of real-life stories.

“The information we share is rich in the detail a service review or message on the NHS App can’t provide.”

Healthwatch York recently raised concerns with The Yorkshire Post that Ukrainians living in the city were choosing to return to their war-torn homeland to get dental treatment, as there were no available NHS dentists.

Ms Balsom also said the organisation had advocated for people experiencing mental health crises and highlighted challenges for deaf people accessing care.

She said she thought Healthwatch could play a “vital role” in supporting the three shifts set out in the NHS plan - moving care from hospital to the community, changing the system from analogue to digital and focusing on prevention over treatment.

“In fact, we would go further - we believe the missing part of the 10-year plan is about the fourth shift.

“Namely the NHS working as equal partners with trusted VCSE groups and groups like Healthwatch to really tackle the ‘medieval’ levels of health inequalities that cost our health services as much as £50bn a year.

“Sadly, this dream of a genuine neighbourhood health approach seems further away this week than it did the week before.”

Janet Wright, chair of Healthwatch York, added “This is a really sad day for everyone involved with the Healthwatch network.

“Successive governments have said people should be at the heart of our system.

“But that can only really happen when that voice is independent. Self- regulation doesn’t work. Independence is part of our DNA.

“The irony is that it has taken us a long time to establish ourselves as an equal partner in the health and care system.

“To lose what we’ve worked so hard to achieve, to lose the people who have made this the success it is, would take years to rebuild.”

In the meantime, Healthwatch York has said it will continue with business as usual until the abolition formally happens - which will likely be next year.