Wes Streeting is right to abolish NHS England — but must not fail this crucial test

Waiting lists are longer, so we’ll have to see how Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer ultimately manage the NHS now they have greater ministerial responsibility.”

He added

NHS staff are working flat out but the current system sets them up to fail. These changes will support the huge number of capable, innovative and committed people across the NHS to deliver for patients and taxpayers.”

He added

This is a man who has existed virtually his whole life in the public sector,

says Agnew

Whitehall has a culture of groupthink and risk aversion that stifles initiative and encourages foot-dragging.”

As Kate Bingham, the head of the world-beating, private-sector-led vaccines taskforce, put it

The job could have been done with half as many people,

he said

This is the end of an era for the NHS and marks the biggest reshaping of its national architecture in a decade

The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, which represent health organisations, said

Caroline Johnsondr

The public understandably want to see the focus on patient care and not on backroom managers, therefore we are supportive of measures to streamline the management and we do not oppose the principles of taking direct control.

Conservative shadow health minister Dr Caroline Johnson told the Commons

Jim Bakkersir

We now need to bring NHS England and DHSC together so we can deliver the biggest bang for our buck for patients.

Sir Jim said

The Government must ensure this transition delivers tangible improvements and doesn't divert attention from urgent priorities like reducing waiting times and improving access to primary care

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said

History tells us that rejigging NHS organisations is hugely distracting and rarely delivers the benefits politicians expect

And Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at the Health Foundation, a think tank, said

There are more than twice as many staff working in NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care today than there were in 2010 - twice as many staff as when the NHS delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history

Mr Streeting added

Too much centralisation and over-supervision has led to a tangled bureaucracy, which focuses on compliance and box-ticking, rather than patient care, value for money, and innovation

Detailing the need for change, DHSC said

As with previous NHS restructures, structural change comes with significant opportunity cost, with staff who would otherwise be spending their time trying to improve productivity, ensure safety, and get the best outcomes for patients, now worrying about whether they will have a job.

She added

If they're going to cut staffing in half, the idea that that's you're going to get away with that because there are two comms teams is just for the birds.

He said

Like many other secretaries of state who have come before him in the post-Lansley era, Streeting has concluded he needs more power to deliver change in the NHS. But unlike those Conservatives who were reluctant to grab too much power, fearing the political fallout, Streeting has concluded that a takeover of NHS England is possible and indeed necessary under a Labour government.”

Richard Sloggett, a DHSC special adviser under Matt Hancock, said

Doctors’ experiences of reorganisations of the NHS have not been positive. This must not become a distraction from the crucial task that lies ahead: dealing with a historic workforce crisis, bringing down waiting lists and restoring the family doctor.”

Prof Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council, said

I tell people now who resist this reform out of love for the NHS, do not kill it with kindness,

Streeting said

By slashing through the layers of red tape and ending the infantilisation of frontline NHS leaders, we will set local NHS providers free to innovate, develop new, productive ways of working and focus on what matters most, delivering better care for patients,

he told the House of Commons

Just days ago they learned their numbers were to be slashed by half, now they discover their employer will cease to exist,

said Unison’s general secretary, Christina McAnea

It is not immediately clear that rearranging the locus of the power at the top will make a huge and immediate difference to these issues, which ultimately will be how patients and the public judge the government,

she said