'Bonfire of the health quangos': Health secretary Wes Streeting vows to axe NHS groups employing 7,000 staff to cut wasteful spending and bureaucracy
Hundreds of NHS quangos employing 7,000 staff will be axed or merged under plans to cut wasteful spending and bureaucracy.
Wes Streeting aims to simplify regulation, which has failed to prevent tragedies or drive improvements.
As well as the Health Secretary creating clearer lines of accountability, the public will be asked to flag emerging issues by submitting reviews after each appointment through the NHS App.
The scores and comments will be used to help officials to identify poorly performing providers.
Responses will also be made publicly available, so that patients can decide where to have treatment.
There are currently 150 regulatory bodies assessing care quality and providing guidelines to staff.
But the Department of Health and Social Care describes the number of recommendations issued as 'overwhelming'.
It means managers and frontline workers risk missing critical information, leading to repeated failings in care homes, hospitals and GP surgeries.
The Government will abolish many of those organisations – including the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, the National Guardian's Office and Healthwatch England. It will also close Commissioning Support Units and abolish Integrated Care Partnerships.
In total, Mr Streeting's 'bonfire of NHS quangos' will abolish 201 bodies, with budgets of more than a quarter-of-a-billion pounds.
The Care Quality Commission will take responsibility for overseeing safety, while the National Quality Board will provide a single set of care quality standards.
It comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced earlier this year that he plans to abolish NHS England, with its work moved in to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Details of the further cuts will be unveiled as part of Labour's Ten Year Health Plan, to be published later this week.
The move has been shaped by the findings of a review into patient safety by Dr Penny Dash, the chairman of NHS England.
Mr Streeting told the Daily Mail: 'Over the past decade and a half, an overly complex system of healthcare regulation has been left to spiral out of control. Our Ten Year Health Plan will tear through this tangled web of bureaucracy, cut wasteful spending and reinvest the savings in frontline care.
'Our reforms will cut unnecessary bureaucracy, and liberate staff to deliver safe, timely care for patients.'
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: 'Protecting patients has to be the priority and not just a drive for efficiency.'
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