Blitz Bureau
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on March 13 announced that country’s National Health Service (NHS England) would be scrapped in order to cut back on bureaucracy. The NHS, which oversees the country’s health service, was heavily criticised for long waiting lists and a number of medical scandals. The organisation will be brought into the Department of Health and Social Care, according to BBC.
“Overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly,” Starmer said while on a visit to the eastern English city of Hull.
“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, GP appointments,” he said. “So today, I can announce we’re going to cut bureaucracy … focus government on the priorities of working people, shift money to the front line.” “So, I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body, NHS England.”
Starmer’s NHS announcement comes as the British leader intends to make the country’s public service “more agile.”
According to Starmer, using artificial intelligence and reducing Britain’s civil service can save the government 45 billion pounds ($58.3 billion or €53.5 billion) a year. The Government said work would begin immediately to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department of Health and Social Care, with the aim of completing the process in two years, according to BBC. The significant move gives the Government more control and accountability over one of their key pledges – to cut NHS waiting times.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the changes would “liberate” frontline workers from excessive and “competing directions”. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, he said the result would be “better value for taxpayers and better outcomes for patients because the hundreds of millions of pounds we can save will be redeployed to the front line delivering better care”.
