NHS England to be abolished

[Chelsea2026]

Shocking news that NHS England is to be abolished by 2027 and all functions moved into DHSC!

NHS England is very heavily focused on data I am sorry you didnt get support you needed. I worked for NHS England from 2015 to 2023 and they were a good employer. (I also worked for HSCIC which was merged into NHS England ).

@maria2bela1 I am so sorry to hear that your job is going - have NHSE published any timescales internally for the transition to DHSC. Do you know if those who remain will stay on AFC or move to Civil Service grades.

hopefully we can train more doctors and keep them now

I am wondering if CQC will be abolished too (or merged into DHSC)

I agree that main work programmes in the NHS nationally will be cancelled. Does anyone know yet what will happen to UDAL and the Federated Data Platform? Who will process SUS and HES data? Will external organisations still get data feeds?

@Chelsea2026 staff have only been told that they hope to have a plan of what will be happening by June. As someone trying to lead a team of people through this it's just awful as we have no information at all, and what we are told conflicts with what DHSC staff are told.

Thank you for the update - it must be really hard for you. Will be interested to find out more in June. What have DHSC been told?

It probably makes sense in the long run but is very bad news for those affected

that said my company (private sector) is merging with another too, and we’re losing lots of “duplicates” too so it’s really not an unusual scenario generally

Amanda p’s departure makes sense now.

I’ve worked in Public Sector all my working life…32 years and counting. My peer group of friends all work in the Private Sector. For the last 15 years I’ve had to listen to them talk about pay rises and bonuses and trips abroad and work parties paid for by employers. Their salaries have increased and they earn significantly more than they did 15 years ago. I don’t. I’m fact I’m financially worse off than I was 15 years ago. If I could change my decision 30 odd years ago to work in the Public Sector I probably would!

I really don’t understand Labour’s thinking at the moment. Nothing about increasing big company taxation. No big ticket ideas like Education, Education, Education. or even in these hard economic times Energy, Energy, Energy. Let alone Environment, Environment, Environment. Which costs more to fix the longer we leave it.

Lots of bullshit petty policies to appease the left of the party though, like whacking up farming inheritance tax so farms get sold off and VAT on private schools. These will have bad knock on effects for ordinary families who just want to eat affordable British food, or just want not have huge class sizes, or who would like to use the most desirable state schools for their kids.

Then we have this kind of thing, snap-abolishing NHS England. This appears to be another ill thought through populist punt seemingly aimed at online right wingers who are going to vote Reform anyway.
The last bloody thing we need is the NHS who has valiantly struggled on caring for us though Covid and through our long term demographics of a rapidly ageing British population, in poorer health due to shameful economic mismanagement creating dreadful poverty levels (I think it’s 10% of the population regularly skipping meals now, because they can’t afford to eat).

Now overnight the government wants to whack in a massive bonfire in health care. I would much rather that doctors and nurses didn’t have to spend time doing the organisational tasks that a civil servant could do for less money.

I’d like the focus to be on making the NHS as efficient as possible and guess what- that takes people and resources to make that happen.

Only complete idiots imagine that it’s just a question of funding doctors and nurses a bit better. There are zillions of systemic issues in the NHS to manage and many very specialist services to take care of. That work is a specialism in itself and someone else doing it allows the healthcare professionals to be with patients doing their jobs.

And also I think as a principle it’s really important to free the NHS from direct political interference as much as possible. I don’t think politicians understand the NHS that well and it’s far far too important to our lives for politicians muck about with it for likes. Which is what’s happening here.

I had a lot of respect for Wes Streeting and so I’m pretty shocked he would put his name to this. I don’t work for the NHS or civil service.
I just know people whose kids’ care relies entirely on some very specialist NHS services that are organised by NHS England, who are extremely worried by this. The patient groups were not consulted about this and so parents and patients are completely in the dark as to what’s going to happen.

I do worry about the knock-on effect.
I work with the NHSE in my university job and since the cuts, payment to placements is taking even longer. Some placements are now not accepting medical students until they get paid which means there's a dearth of placements.

I'd also like to see some of the ridiculously expensive staff in hospitals reduced too like assistant director of mops etc - far too many £100k+ management staff in the NHS trusts

Are these self-serving studies implemented by managers?

I recently attended, along with several colleagues, including other managers and clinicians, a meeting called by a manager. There was no agenda to the meeting. The manager asked if there was anything anyone needed to talk about, as there was no agenda and they themselves did not have anything to raise. This brought on a tumble weed moment and a lot of shuffling followed by some mumbled murmurs of ‘no’. The manager then announced the date of the next meeting.

All of this none-event was minuted - as in, this meeting was attended by several John and Jane Doe’s, No matters raised. Meeting ended and date of next meeting is on did/mm/yyyy. These none-minutes were typed and distributed.

What a complete and utter waste of time with all the associated costs. One meeting in one department in one Trust … multiply this across the whole failing system ... This is what needs to end!

Apparently senior management roles increased by approx 50% in recent years (think it was since 2018 but would have to check.)

Absolutely - it was more a general comment on the attitude of "admin bad, doctors shouldn't waste their time on it and we shouldn't employ lots of people just to do admin".

I bet there are tons of needless things happening. But, to improve efficiency, perhaps we do need people to measure and assess it? I don't know, I don't have skin in the game!

‘Woke bollocks’ is an interesting accusation - what’s your take on the Incontinence Service, or the erectile dysfunction clinic - are they woke bollocks as well?!

It becomes 'woke bollocks' when they appoint males to the support roles.

There isn't the funds for everything. Hard decisions have to be made. My MIL died after 48 hours in a trolley in A&E for something pretty easily treatable. I'd have rather she'd received treatment and a hospital bed if money/staffing are short, rather than them dealing with upsetting/disturbing conditions like that which are unpleasant but tend not to result in unnecessary early death! It's a matter of priorities, sadly.

If the money saved from abolishing NHS Direct (and it's a big "if") is spent on more front line staff (training and wages), more hospital beds (or better usage efficiency), more scanners (or better usage efficiency), etc., then bring it on.

@Chelsea2026 Apparently they have been told about their redundancy scheme - we've been given the impression it would be one scheme across both orgs. Also in terms of loss of jobs, we've been subjected to a recruitment freeze (fair enough) but they haven't. It seems to be one rule for us and one for them, which isn't surprising given the whole thing is driven by the government and politics.

@Badbadbunny I am sorry for your loss, I really am. There are unfortunately many situations like yours and it is awful.
My issue with the pp was their dismissal of such a clinic as woke - it seemed odd to me.
And whilst I agree there isn’t the funds for everything, there are a lot of conditions that are unpleasant but won’t end your life your life. Where do we draw the line?
Actually, I remember a thread on here a while a go about what shouldn’t be funded by the NHS and it largely boiled down to ‘things that don’t affect me or my loved ones.’
I suppose the real question is, will the money saved go on funding the things you mention - I certainly hope so, but I’m a bit too cynical to believe it these days.

If all government healthcare organisations are abolished who will check that local providers are managing patient care effectively?

Presumably there was a hierarchy of control in place before the 90s and 00s when Trusts were created and before 2013 when NHS England was created??

I'm pretty sure that GP surgeries and hospitals weren't just given shedloads of cash by Whitehall without there being any consultation, control, supervision, etc. Pretty sure I remember things like regional boards and management committees with governors etc.

You don't know what NHS England does do you?

Considering the body that funds and manages doctor training has just been abolished I wouldn't bet on it.