Abolition of NHS England seeks to put ministers in control of the NHS

Abstract

Reorganisation threatens to distract managers and staff from work to improve patient care In the end, enough was enough. Having promised not to undertake a top-down reorganisation of the NHS, that is exactly what Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer decided to do.1 NHS England is being abolished. The government’s decision was prompted by growing frustrations on the part of ministers at the duplication of responsibilities between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care and the need to find savings. Pressures on public finances have increased since last autumn’s budget, in part because of the government’s commitment to spend more on defence. With the Office for Budgetary Responsibility warning of the need to plan for increases in NHS spending to meet changing population needs, and the resources to do so shrinking, the government is acting to control NHS finances.2 A new leadership team in NHS England, led by Jim Mackey, has been …