Bold reorganisation is much needed but what next for the health service post NHS England?
The Prime Minister’s announcement that NHS England would be abolished sent shockwaves across the country yesterday, especially in Leeds, where the organisation is headquartered.
Thousands of jobs will be cut as a result of the decision and it’s never pleasant seeing people lose their livelihoods.
However, for a long time it has been acknowledged that the NHS has become top heavy. Parts of the healthcare service, which has become oversized and cumbersome, have lost touch with its primary purpose and it is now a bureaucratic labyrinth.
This newspaper has long called for the NHS to be freed from the shackles of bureaucracy. Therefore, on the face of it, such a bold intervention is to be welcomed.
As Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned last year, we risk getting to a stage where we have an “NHS with a country attached to it”.
The devil will be in the details. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wants to bring management of the health service “back into democratic control”. However, bureaucratic over-centralisation cannot be replaced with political over-centralisation.
Labour is in a good position to deliver meaningful reform. The party was responsible for the introduction of the NHS and it has a strong majority in the Commons.
The NHS needs bold reform and not tinkering around the edges. And this is certainly a bold move from the PM.
What remains to be seen is what the NHS will look like following this reorganisation.
Despite all its flaws, it has to be acknowledged that the NHS is often taken for granted. The pandemic was illustrative of how valuable a universal health system, free at the point of use, actually is.
While frontline workers were rightly lauded as heroes during the Covid crisis, there were those within NHS England who also provided support behind the scenes to the response.