Wes Streeting refuses to say Labour’s NHS reform won’t cost jobs | LBC - video Dailymotion

Metatube

The Health Secretary has refused to confirm if doctors and nurses will lose their jobs in the wake of NHS England being abolished by the government.  Sir Keir Starmer today announced plans to abolish NHS England in a bid to cut government red tape and bureaucracy and bring the health service back under "democratic control."  The move will put the NHS "back at the heart of government where it belongs," Sir Keir said, "freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses."  But speaking to LBC’s Andrew Marr, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was unable to confirm doctors and nurses would not lose their jobs with this shift in policy.  Listen to the full show on Global Player: https://app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/LBCYouTubeListenLive  #andrewmarr #nhs #nhsengland #labourparty #politics #ukpolitics #keirstarmer #nhsjobs #healthsecretary #news #politicalnews #uknews  #LBC  LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK.  Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/  Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup

Transcript

00:00Thanks for coming in. You said when you were asked about a big reorganisation back in December 2023

00:07and I quote, I don't feel the need to come in and make my mark on the system through a big

00:12top-down reorganisation. Now I think you've changed your mind rightly but what was it that

00:17made you change your mind? Experience of the last eight months to be honest Andrew, I mean I came in

00:23I knew that there needed to be a change in approach so I came in and with Amanda Pritchard who's the

00:27outgoing Chief Executive of NHS England we've worked together to build a what I've described

00:32with Amanda as a one team culture across the department and NHS England to try and get rid

00:38of some of the duplication, waste, inefficiency and contradiction at the kind of the national

00:46level that then bleeds down and fires all sorts of competing instructions in. However I mean just

00:51to give people a sense of scale the combined size of my department NHS England is twice as large as

00:57it was in 2010 when Labour was delivering the shortest waiting times and the highest patient

01:02satisfaction in history. So we are paying more, getting less, so what the Prime Minister and I

01:07are announcing today is about better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers.

01:13So when you looked at the reorganisation all the rest of you thought hold on a second it is bonkers

01:17having two big organisations both trying to run the NHS. Yeah. What was the moment that made you

01:22realise that? I think there's when you actually sort of work in that system despite the fact that

01:28across both organisations there are some brilliant people so this is not about saying oh because I

01:33mean the bureaucracy is definitely bloated but that doesn't mean the people are a waste

01:39or bloated or not hard working because they really are and I know that this sort of change is

01:44unsettling for people and that actually weighs heavily on me because I like people that I work

01:48with and who work for me but I think the the challenge here is that you know especially

01:53thinking about the last few months I reflected on this over Christmas I sort of came back in the

01:58new year and at that stage was talking to the NHS's leadership talking to the Prime Minister saying

02:04something's got to change and one of the things that's made this possible is having the backing

02:08of the Prime Minister's leadership. I mean he says he wants to modernise the way that Whitehall works

02:14my goodness it needs it. He says he wants to cut the number of quangos and today we're abolishing

02:18the biggest quango in the world. There are still 300 quangos or so through which the government

02:23channels public money. What's next? Have you got a list of quangos you want to take out beyond

02:28this? We're definitely going to be doing some reform of regulation. One of the complaints I

02:32hear from frontline leaders in the NHS is firstly they didn't like the duplication and contradiction

02:37you sometimes get from the head offices and the fact there's two head offices bonkers so now

02:41there'll be one but they also say look we know there's a tough challenge we know we've got to

02:47reform but actually it's the weight of regulation that's determining lots of decisions which are

02:52leading to waste inefficiency and poorer patient outcomes so you Secretary of State need to set us

02:57free to deliver so there'll be more regulatory reform and I am looking at all of our arm's length

03:02bodies and saying can we get even more efficiency because to be honest Andrew even if the country

03:07weren't in the massive hole it's in and the public finances weren't in the mass massive mess that they

03:13were left in by the Conservatives I think we should we would still be and should still be

03:17doing these things because at all times we should be delivering good value for taxpayers money

03:22and spending it as carefully and as wisely as they're spending their own money. Now I know you'll

03:26say this is not about job cuts but nonetheless an awful lot of people listening the numbers of people

03:31being being shed will be very important indeed you've said get rid of about half of the office

03:37staff in the Department of Health and NHS England within two years now my back of an envelope

03:43calculation means that's between nine and ten thousand people is that about right? That's broadly right and

03:48that will save hundreds of millions of pounds a year and although abolishing NHS England will take

03:53place over a two-year period we will go as fast as we can on that restructure of staff

04:01so that we can generate savings as quickly as possible.

Wes Streeting refuses to say Labour’s NHS reform won’t cost jobs | LBC

Category

Transcript

Recommended