A massive new reorganisation of the NHS has been under way since the end of last year: it took a further lurch forward and hit news headlines on March 13 with Sir Keir Starmer’s surprise announcement that NHS England is to be abolished.
Throughout the process the hand of Health Secretary Streeting and his aides has been clearly visible, orchestrating the announcements and the changes, as structures set up through legislation as recently as 2022 are drastically changed. (See the Timeline below)
Few campaigners will shed many tears at the dismantling of NHSE. Its role from the beginning was as the national commissioning board overseeing the competitive market for health care established by Andrew Lansley’s disastrous mega-‘reform’ from 2013.
But nor is there any obvious enthusiasm to go back to the decade of New Labour’s market-style reforms, primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, PFI, privatisation and “world class commissioning” that came before it, although that seems to be the model that Streeting and Starmer are hoping to recreate.
Despite being notionally ‘independent’ and ‘at arm’s length’ from ministers, NHSE has for all 12 years obediently followed up every government push for greater use of private sector providers.
Full article on The Lowdown, 16 March 2025