If the scheme is scrapped about 10,000 health workers would lose their jobs

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Thursday that his Labour government would take closer control of England’s revered but flagging National Health Service as he vowed to streamline the British state.

Starmer said he would abolish the NHS England body to “cut bureaucracy” and bring management of the almost 80-year-old health service “back into democratic control”.

The government said the move would lead to several thousand job cuts, saving “hundreds of millions of pounds a year” that would be “reinvested in frontline services”.

“That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments,” Starmer said during a visit in northeast England.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech on plans to reform the civil service, during a visit to Reckitt Benckiser Health Care UK Ltd in Kingston upon Hull, north-east England on March 13, 2025.

The previous Conservative-led administration established NHS England in 2013 as a so-called arms-length body to deliver health services.

But Starmer argued that decisions involving billions of pounds of taxpayer money should be made by the central government.

NHS England is financed by the government but runs itself.

It employs around 13,500 staff members — three times more than the Department of Health, according to the government.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government was looking at halving the combined workforce of the two entities, meaning around 9,500 people could lose their jobs.

The NHS is revered by most Britons but has been on its knees for years due to underinvestment and poor morale, which has led to significant strike action.

Starmer, elected last July, has vowed to cut waiting times for operations and create more doctors’ appointments.

His NHS announcement forms part of a wider plan to make the British state “more agile”.

Starmer says reducing the size of Britain’s half-a-million-strong civil service and increasing the use of artificial intelligence can save the government £45 billion ($58.3 billion) a year.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, he called Britain’s public service “overcautious” and “flabby”. (AFP)