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Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom has declared that his government aims to reduce a part of the country’s healthcare bureaucracy and bring it back under “democratic control”.

Reforming the struggling National Health Service (NHS) is among the main priorities of the Labour government domestically, and recently, the prime minister revealed the plan to close NHS England. This governmental entity oversees the delivery of health services in England.

Speaking at a press conference, Starmer maintained that the decision to dissolve NHS England was largely an issue of efficiency. These claims align with reports suggesting that his government is looking to downsize the public sector to improve the UK’s financial situation.

“One of the reasons we’re disbanding it is due to duplication. You might be surprised, but we have a communications team in NHS England, a communications team in the health department of the government, a strategy team in NHS England, and a strategy team in the government department.”

“By eliminating this, which is what we are doing today, we can then allocate the money to where it’s needed, which is at the front line.”

Quango chainsawed

National media outlets have reported that some Labour aides have referred to the agenda as “project chainsaw”, in reference to the significant and legally dubious cuts to the US executive branch presently being overseen by Elon Musk.

The government statement that accompanied the announcement described the body as the “world’s largest quango”, which is UK terminology for a “quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation”.

Shortly after Starmer’s announcement in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has made bold moves to use private healthcare capacity to help the overburdened NHS, stated that it will take around two years to integrate NHS England’s functions back into the system.

“These reforms will create a more streamlined NHS, resulting in significant annual savings of hundreds of millions of pounds,” he stated. “This money will flow to the front line to cut waiting times and implement our Plan for Change by reducing bureaucracy and stopping the infantilisation of NHS leaders at the front line.”

In 2012, there was a sweeping and highly controversial reform of the healthcare system that granted NHS England more control over how England’s £200 billion healthcare budget should be spent. However, over the years, with public sector pay nearly stagnant, the NHS has seen a surge in waiting lists alongside a crisis in staff retention and recruitment.

Although the previous government did increase spending on healthcare, they fell short on hospital-building targets and failed to improve waiting times for treatment by the time they lost power in the 2024 general election.

During his statement to parliament, Streeting claimed numerous Conservative MPs had confided in him that the 2012 reorganisation had been a mistake.

Professor Dame Til Wykes, the head of the School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences at King’s College London, stated that the reforms announced by Streeting and Starmer missed the mark regarding the issues with the health service.

“The problems within the NHS are mainly due to a lack of funding, not management,” she said in a statement. “With the disappearance of NHS England, the government might regret taking total responsibility for the issues that arise – they won’t have anyone to blame but themselves.”

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“If scrapping NHS England means increasing the involvement of the private-for-profit sector, then health services are in for challenging times. Removing services from the NHS makes it less efficient and more expensive to run.”