When asked about the impact on patient care, he said: “Of course there are always up-front costs. And yes there is always a risk of disruption.”<\/p>\n
Streeting said former health secretaries had “not been prepared to take on those sorts of challenges” and argued NHS England “was set up to shield politicians like me from responsibility”.<\/p>\n
He said: “I’ve seen waste, inefficiency and duplication. So of course we should go after that.”<\/p>\n
When asked for a second time if patient care would be disrupted by the government’s reorganisation of the NHS, Streeting promised to deliver improvements and said waiting lists for treatment had already been falling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The government said its main reasons for abolishing NHS England were to “cut bureaucracy” and reform how health services operate.<\/p>\n
It dubbed NHS England “the world’s largest quango” – the term used to describe publicly funded organisations at arm’s length from the government<\/p>\n
Currently, NHS England oversees the health service, working with government to agree funding and priorities, as well as monitoring the performance of local NHS services.<\/p>\n
Under the changes, the organisation will be brought into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which is headed by Streeting.<\/p>\n
The reforms will not impact anyone’s access to the NHS, with the health service remaining free at the point of use.<\/p>\n
The government said it expected around half of the jobs at NHS England and DHSC to go – around 9,000 administrative roles.<\/p>\n
The chairman of NHS England, Richard Meddings, said he did not disagree with the abolishing of the organisation, in his first interview since the changes were announced.<\/p>\n
But speaking to the BBC, he said the buck will now stop with ministers, saying: “There will no longer be a separate vehicle that can be pointed [at] to say that’s what got it wrong.”<\/p>\n
Writing in the Telegraph, Streeting suggested scrapping NHS England was “the beginning, not the end” and said he would continue “slashing bloated bureaucracy”.<\/p>\n
The health secretary tasked Penny Dash, who was made chairman of NHS England at the start of this month, with carrying out a review of bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Some of the organisations overseen by the Department for Health include Care Quality Commission, the UK Health Security Agency and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.<\/p>\n
Beneath those is a patchwork of smaller public bodies on a regional and local level.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC, Streeting would not be drawn on which bureaucratic NHS organisations he would consider axing, but suggested there was “an overregulation” of NHS services.<\/p>\n
He said NHS frontline leaders have told him “they are often receiving a barrage of commands – sometimes contradictory and competing demands – from the Department for Health, from NHS England and from the wide range of regulators in this space”.<\/p>\n
He said simplification would set the NHS up to succeed and he was “going after the bureaucracy, not the people who work in it”.<\/p>\n
He added: “Of course, I can’t sugar coat the fact that there will be a significant number of job losses and we will want to make sure we are treating people fairly, supporting them properly through that process.”<\/p>\n
The Conservatives have welcomed the move to bring the management of the health service back under ministerial control, but warned Labour “cannot hide if things go wrong”.<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats said the government should ensure that scrapping NHS England does not “have negative impacts on the quality of care for patients” and urged ministers to complete a review of social care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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