NHS England’s workforce will be cut by half, with around 6,500 jobs to go, in a bid to save at least £175m annually.
The government plans aim to “avoid duplication” with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and will see the health service enter “a period of critical transformation”.
Meanwhile, a string of NHS directors will be stepping down, with chief executive Amanda Pritchard and medical director Sir Stephen Powis leading the way. Announcements of their departures were followed by those of chief financial officer Julian Kelly, chief operating officer Emily Lawson and chief delivery officer Steve Russell.
Wes Streeting, secretary of state for health and social care, said: “We are entering a period of critical transformation for our NHS. With a stronger relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, we will work together with the speed and urgency needed to meet the scale of the challenge.”
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Pritchard broke news of the major cutbacks in an email to staff, making clear the plan had been instigated by Streeting.
Commenting on the new proposals, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “These changes are happening at a scale and pace not anticipated to begin with, but given the huge savings that the NHS needs to make this year it makes sense to reduce areas of duplication at a national level and for the NHS to be led by a leaner centre.”
He believes that although NHS England has already delivered big savings and contributed to improvements in productivity, more is needed this year for the benefit of patients and taxpayers.
“These changes represent the biggest reshaping of the NHS’s national architecture in more than a decade. It is important that local NHS organisations and other bodies are involved in this transformation as the immediate next steps become clearer, so that an optimum operating model can be created,” he added.
However, Helga Pile, head of health at union Unison, warned that staff will be “understandably concerned about this sudden change of direction”.
She said: “The number of redundancies being sought at NHS England has trebled in just a matter of weeks. Employees there have already been through the mill with endless rounds of reorganisation. What was already a stressful prospect has now become more like a nightmare.”
From April, the DHSC will undergo a downsizing process, which will lead to closer collaboration with NHS England. Despite this, it will experience significantly fewer staff reductions in comparison.
The changes will allow Streeting to have more authority over the organisation overseeing the operational performance of England’s health service.
Pile added: “Fixing a broken NHS needs a proper plan, with central bodies resourced and managed effectively so local services are supported. Rushing through cuts brings a risk of creating a further, more complicated mess and could ultimately hold the NHS back. That would let down the very people who need it most, the patients.”
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