HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting took aim at the NHS today saying it’s “addicted to spending” as he spelled out plans for “significant” job losses.
The Cabinet Minister indicated that his health service shake-up could see NHS quangos get the chop in a bureaucracy overhaul.
The changes are the biggest since reforms in 2012 when NHS England was set up[/caption]
Patients wait in a busy NHS reception as staff manage a steady flow of appointments and inquiries[/caption]
His warning shot came as he considered swinging the axe at health-related bodies but couldn’t put a figure on redundancy figures.
It comes after the shock announcement this week that NHS England would be abolished with its role coming under direct Ministerial control.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, he said: “I’m genuinely sorry about that because we don’t want them to be in that position, but I’ve got to make the changes that are necessary.”
The changes are the biggest since reforms in 2012 when NHS England was set up.
He refused to say which bodies would be hit saying decisions would be made when NHS chair Penny Dash releases her review.
Later speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said: “I’m going after the bureaucracy, not the people who work in it.
“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.
“I’m not criticising them, but I’ve got to make sure the system is well set up.”
He also told how integrated care boards will have to cut their costs by half as they would have been up to £6 billion over budget.
He said: “I’m afraid this speaks to the culture that I identified before the general election where the NHS is addicted to overspending, is addicted to running up routine deficits, with the assumption that someone will come along to bail them out.”
He also commented on the upcoming welfare changes but refused to be drawn on whether some disability benefits would be frozen.
But he did say there has been an “over-diagnosis” of mental health conditions pushing up costs for the taxpayer.
He said: “I want to follow the evidence and I agree with that point about overdiagnosis.
“Here’s the other thing, mental wellbeing, illness, it’s a spectrum and I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis but there’s too many people being written off and, to your point about treatment, too many people who just aren’t getting the support they need.
“So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.”
The Sun says
KEIR Starmer is living the Tories’ dream.
His left-wing Labour backbenchers may loathe him scrapping NHS England and slashing up to 10,000 penpushers.
For years we have demanded a bonfire of the quangos — largely useless bloodsucking state-funded bureaucracies, blocking progress and stopping Governments doing what voters want.
Here is the biggest being hurled on the pyre. More money for frontline services is of course welcome.
But even savings of hundreds of millions are tiny within the colossal NHS budget.
The main benefit should be greater efficiency, with speedier decisions taken directly by Wes Streeting’s Health Department.
Taxpayers detest public sector waste. But their biggest concern by far is not how the NHS is run but how well it runs.
The Health Secretary must set out exactly how this streamlining will translate into drastically shorter wait times and better patient outcomes.
The fact this vital surgery fell to Labour vividly exposes the Tories’ failure. It is true they spent years engulfed by Brexit, Covid and war.
But they also simply lacked the stomach to reform the NHS and endure the rage of Labour, the unions and even the mob on Twitter.
Labour has done what the Tories should have sorted long ago.
And the PM must now take his chainsaw to hundreds more quangos.
Wes Streeting emphasised his focus on cutting bureaucracy rather than targeting NHS staff[/caption]
The Health Secretary refused to say which bodies would be hit saying decisions would be made when NHS chair Penny Dash releases her review[/caption]
