NHS to be reformed to tackle ‘burdensome bureaucracy’

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is expected to outline plans to create a ‘more innovative and responsive’ NHS with reforms on the way.

Planning for health and care services to work more closely together, the government believes that the changes will target ‘burdensome bureaucracy’ and put the NHS in a better position to cope with an ageing population and a rise in people with complex health conditions.

The proposals - which would overhaul many of the rules put in place by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act - include scrapping the tendering rule which has made it complicated for councils and different parts of the NHS to set up joint teams and pool budgets.

It is reported that the changes will allow councils and NHS services to set up bodies that can make decisions about how to join up services, which many organisations, including the Nuffield Trust think tank, have said could help different parts of the system work more closely together. This should increase accountability and enable the health and care sector to use technology in a modern way.

Whilst not going as far as to say the reforms are unwelcome, the Labour Party has questioned the timing of the paper and announcement. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson must explain why a reorganisation in the midst of the biggest crisis the NHS has ever faced is his pressing priority.

He said: “With 192,000 patients now waiting over a year for treatment, our cancer survival rates shamefully low by European standards and mental health services stretched to the limits, Ministers need to outline how an NHS reorganisation at this point in time will deliver the standards of care patients deserve.”

The government, in turn, has said that the new proposals to build on the successful NHS response to the pandemic.

Hancock said: “The NHS and local government have long been calling for better integration and less burdensome bureaucracy, and this virus has made clear the time for change is now. These changes will allow us to build back better and bottle the innovation and ingenuity of our brilliant staff during the pandemic, where progress was made despite the legal framework, rather than because of it.

“The proposals build on what the NHS has called for and will become the foundations for a health and care system which is more integrated, more innovative and responsive, and more ready to respond to the challenges of tomorrow, from health inequalities to our ageing population.”

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Our legislative proposals go with the grain of what patients and staff across the health service all want to see – more joined-up care, less legal bureaucracy and a sharper focus on prevention, inequality and social care. This legislation builds on the past seven years of practical experience and experimentation across the health service and the flexible ‘can-do’ spirit NHS staff have shown in spades throughout the pandemic.”

Other measures in the reforms include putting the Healthcare Safety Investigations Branch permanently into law as a statutory body so it can continue to reduce risk and improve safety, as well as a package of measures to deliver on specific needs in the social care sector.