Nick TriggleHealth correspondent
Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.
The government said last year 18,000 administrative and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
The Treasury blocked that, but the understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.
Pragmatic step
As the job cuts result in savings in future years, the NHS will be expected to recoup the costs further down the line.
Overall, government sources said no extra money is going into the NHS beyond what was agreed at the spending review this year – an extra £29bn a year above inflation by 2028-29.
In a speech to health managers at the NHS Providers’ conference in Manchester on Wednesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting is expected to say: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.
“We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in frontline care.
“It won’t happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, we will rebuild our NHS so it is there for you when you need it once again.”
According to the government, the reforms will raise £1bn a year by the end of the parliament to improve services for patients.
It said every £1bn saved in bureaucracy costs is enough to fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to make further announcements regarding the health service in the Budget on 26 November.
NHS England is expected be brought back into the Department of Health within two years, while the cuts to integrated care boards (ICBs), which plan health services for individual regions, will reduce their headcounts by 50%.
NHS Providers’ chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: “This is a pragmatic step that means planned redundancies can now go ahead.
“It reflects the flexibility of a three-year settlement, allowing some funding to be brought forward in order to generate future savings to go into frontline care.
“However, we must recognise the position of staff affected by these changes – people who have offered commitment and service to the NHS – who face a very uncertain future.”
But Patricia Marquis of the Royal College of Nursing warned the redundancies could backfire.
“Frontline services need more investment, but to do this off the backs of making thousands of experts redundant is a false economy.
“Expert registered nurses working across NHS England and ICBs don’t just run vital public health programmes and oversee care programmes for the vulnerable – they connect the NHS and social care services with one another.
“To imply these are administrators shows a complete lack of understanding of their roles and how they contribute to patient care.”
