MPs raise concerns over ‘bold’ plans to abolish NHS England
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it was not a decision he had taken ‘lightly’.
Turf wars and redundancies could negatively impact frontline NHS staff, the Commons heard, as MPs raised concerns over the Government’s plans to abolish NHS England.
Labour MP Kevin McKenna, who worked in the NHS for 26 years, argued the changes could make it harder for the voices of nurses and other clinical leaders to be heard.
There is “no guarantee of success”, Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew said, as he claimed the proposals were one top-down reform being fixed by another top-down reform.
Meanwhile, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt praised the “boldness” of the proposals.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Streeting said: “These reforms will deliver a much leaner top of the NHS, making significant savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year. That money will flow down to the front line, to cut waiting times faster, and deliver our plan for change.
“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.”
Mr Mayhew, MP for Broadland and Fakenham, argued the experience of the NHS in Wales “means that this reform on itself is no guarantee of success”.
He added: “The Secretary of State rightly said in his statement that change is hard, it is I’m afraid inescapable that whilst this reform is ongoing the NHS leadership is going to be hugely distracted with turf wars, redundancies, and developing new working practices.
“So what steps is the Secretary of State going to take to prevent that distraction from having a negative effect on frontline services?”
“That is how the party opposite presided over the longest waiting lists and the lowest patient satisfaction on record, at the same time as spending staggering amounts of public money.
“So more money and no reform is not the answer.”
Earlier in the statement on NHS England, Mr Hunt said: “Can I commend the boldness of today’s announcement? If the NHS is going to be turned around it is going to need radical reforms.
“If the result today is to replace bureaucratic overcentralisation with political overcentralisation, it will fail. But if what happens today is that we move to the decentralised model that we have for the police and for schools, it could be the start of a real transformation.”
The Conservative MP for Godalming and Ash asked whether central targets would be abolished and what role he foresaw for the Care and Quality Commission (CQC).
“This overcentralisation has got to stop. For the future it will be for the department and the NHS nationally to do those things that only the National Health Service can do, providing the enablers for the system as a whole.
“What we are presiding over and embarking on is the biggest decentralisation of power in the history of our National Health Service.”
Mr Streeting added a reformed CQC can be the “best guarantee and safeguard of quality that patients and the public deserve”.
During the statement, Labour MPs, including Mr Mckenna, expressed compassion for NHS England staff whose jobs will now be at risk.
Mr Mckenna, a former nurse, said: “My heart goes out today to so many people who have insecurity about their jobs following this announcement, even though I believe it to be the right one.”
The Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP added: “One of the things I am concerned about is making sure that clinical leadership is still heard at the centre.
“As a nurse, I found it harder to get into NHS England, doctors and their career structures do find it more easy, and moving everything NHS England functions into to the department, moving off of NHS terms and conditions will make it harder for nurses, allied health professionals and other clinicians working in the NHS.”
“Clinical leadership is vital, and that’s not just doctors, that’s also about nurses and other clinical leadership.”
Labour MP Rachael Maskell (York Central) said: “I do want to thank the staff at NHS England for the work they’ve done, but I am sorry in the way that they’ve heard of this announcement, because I know it’s their jobs which are being put at risk today.
“We have got to make ensure, however, we are not replicating NHS England across the ICBs (integrated care boards) of our country and ICBS also are reformed to transform the NHS with the three shifts that will be placed on them with the publication of the ten year plan.
“How will (Mr Streeting) ensure that we have the machinery to hold the system to account, but also bring those reforms in place?”
Mr Streeting replied: “She is absolutely right, if we are just replicating NHS England as it is, with all of the challenges that it has set-up in ICBS across the land, we will have failed.”
He added that he will be “working with ICB leaders to reform their ways of working, to clarify their priorities, give the clearer marching orders and make sure that they are able to deliver”.
