UK PM Keir Starmer reveals plan to abolish NHS England

Just days after announcing sweeping job cuts at NHS England, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that the government intends to do away with the centre altogether.

The centre – which was established in 2013 under the previous Conservative government to handle the budget and day-to-day running of the commissioning side of the health service in England – will be dismantled to "cut bureaucracy" and bring the service "back into democratic control," said the PM.

The decision – announced during a speech by Starmer on reforms to the civil service and the government operating practices – comes after a string of high-profile departures from NHS England that include chief executive Amanda Pritchard and medical director Sir Stephen Powis.

It has been clear for some time that big changes are coming in the NHS, with reform a key pillar of Labour's manifesto in the build-up to their 2024 election victory, but the abolition of what Starmer called the "arm's length body" goes a lot further than many had expected.

Earlier this week, it was announced that around 6,500 jobs could go at NHS England, around half its total workforce, to avoid "duplication" of roles within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

At the time, the government said that new NHS England CEO Sir James Mackey would set up a transition "to lead the radical reduction and reshaping of the centre" – and few would have guessed that total abolition was on the cards.

The big questions now are exactly how the workload of NHS England will be handled in future, how many staffers will make the transition to the DHSC, and how many will face the chop.

The move "will put the NHS back at the heart of government, where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, with less bureaucracy [and] more money for nurses," said Starmer. "An NHS refocused on cutting waiting times at your hospital."

He continued: "I don't see why decisions about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arm's length body […] and 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, and GP appointments, said the PM.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said that the demise of NHS England 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."

The announcement comes amid a series of others involving the NHS, including that integrated care boards (ICBs) – which are responsible for planning and funding most NHS services within a local area – have to cut their running costs in half by December and that provider trusts will also be asked to make further cuts to their corporate costs.