Streeting to slash size of NHS England in feared power grab

Wes Streeting is to cut thousands of jobs at NHS England following his ousting of its chair and chief executive in what health service staff fear is a power grab.

- Denis Campbell

The health secretary's plan follows Amanda Pritchard's shock announcement yesterday that she is stepping down as the organisation's chief executive next month.

She is being replaced, for the foreseeable future, by Sir Jim Mackey, the widely-admired chief executive of the NHS trust that runs the acute hospitals in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Streeting plans to gain and assert far more control over NHS England as part of his mission to usher in "a new era for the NHS" and revive the public service voters care most about.

That also includes shrinking the size of the organisation that is in operational charge of the health service through deep cuts to its 13,000-strong workforce and having it do far less in the future.

He plans to end the situation whereby separate teams of officials at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) cover the same area of health policy, such as primary care, which he regards as unnecessary duplication of roles.

While those teams often agree on changes needed, disagreements between them have also held up key policy initiatives.