MiP responds to reports of a major NHS reorganisation

Responding to a report in the Guardian that the Prime Minister is considering a significant reorganisation of the NHS, to be cemented in a bill later this summer, Jon Restell, MiP Chief Executive, said:
“The NHS needs to focus on coronavirus and restarting services. It must not be distracted by a major NHS re-organisation.
“Fingers burnt by the Lansley Act have healed too quickly. These reorganisations tend to reverse progress for patients and service users, cost a fortune and see the damaging loss of managerial skills, experience and capacity. In the context of the pandemic, it could be disastrous.
“Innovation has been accelerated in response to the pandemic such as more digital access for both NHS staff and patients, and NHS bodies working more closely together. The Government should study what’s happened and also ask NHS staff what they think. In our view only essential legislative changes to support co-operation and integration should be attempted.
“Politicians should instead focus on social care reform and make it the positive legacy of the pandemic’s many tragedies.”
Related News
-

NHS reforms at risk as management capacity is cut, MPs told
MiP Chief Executive Jon Restell warns MPs that NHS reforms are at risk if the management capacity needed to make them happen is cut.
-

MiP responds to Health Secretary James Murray speech at NHS ConfedExpo
MiP says Health Secretary James Murray was right to recognise the innovation and creativity in the NHS, but the very people who drive it are the ones who are losing their jobs.
-

NHS job cuts a risk to cybersecurity as threat of AI-powered attacks rises “dramatically”
The threat of potentially catastrophic cyber attacks on the NHS has increased “really dramatically” in recent weeks and is still “accelerating”, NHS England chief Sir Jim Mackey has said. His warning came just weeks after NHSE’s board was warned by its own digital experts that NHS job cuts posed an “unmitigated” risk to cybersecurity.