Wes Streeting threatens to defy commerce unions and axe ‘a whole lot’ extra well being quangos which he accuses of ‘cluttering up’ the NHS

The Health Secretary has threatened to ignore trade unions and axe ‘hundreds’ more health quangos which are ‘cluttering up’ the NHS .

West Streeting has raised eyebrows as he warned that there is ‘far more change to come’, saying the Government’s move to abolish NHS England was just the tip of the iceberg.

He said there is ‘no time to waste’ and therefore would press ahead to shrug off ‘vested interests’ such as the unions.

It comes after the Prime Minister unveiled plans to ban the body and taking it under the Department of Health’s control, which could free up money from 10,000 job cuts for frontline services.

The PM declared the ‘world’s biggest quango’ will be scrapped to restore ‘democratic control’ and slash red tape.

Established in 2013 under the Coalition government, NHS England was intended to give health service policymakers independence and autonomy from politicians.

Yet in the words of one medical critic today, it rapidly became little more than ‘an overblown bureaucratic folly’.

West Streeting has raised eye brows as he warned ‘far more change to come’, saying the Government’s move to abolish NHS England was just the tip of the iceberg

It comes after the Prime Minister unveiled plans to ban the body and taking it under the Department of Health’s control which could free up money from 10,000 job cuts for frontline services 

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Streeting said: ‘The abolition of NHS England – the world’s largest quango – is the beginning, not the end.

‘Patients and staff alike can see the inefficiency and waste in the health service. My team and I are going through budgets line by line, with a relentless focus on slashing bloated bureaucracy.’

He acknowledged that ‘change is hard’ but warned that ‘far more change [is] to come’ and that there were ‘cautious voices warning us to slow down’.

Despite this, he said the government would press on, saying: ‘we inherited an NHS going through the worst crisis in its history’.

He added: ‘There’s no time to waste. Labour will never duck the hard work of reform. We will take on vested interests so that the NHS can be there for you when you need it, once again.’

He went on to explain that he tasked Penny Dash, who at the start of this month was made chairman of NHS England, with carrying out a root and branch review of bureaucracy and that she has already ‘identified hundreds of bodies cluttering the patient safety and regulatory landscape, leaving patients and staff alike lost in a labyrinth of paperwork and frustration’.

The Department for Health directly oversees public bodies, including large organisations like the UK Health Security Agency and the Care Quality Commission.

Underneath that, there is a network of hundreds of smaller bodies, many on a regional and local level, which manage services and oversee the running of the NHS.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Streeting said: ‘The abolition of NHS England – the world’s largest quango – is the beginning, not the end’

He acknowledged that ‘change is hard’ but warned that ‘far more change [is] to come’ and that there ‘cautious voices warning us to slow down’. Despite this he said the government would press on, saying: ‘we inherited an NHS going through the worst crisis in its history’

He went on to explain that he tasked Penny Dash, pictured, who at the start of this month was made chairman of NHS England, with carrying out a root and branch review of bureaucracy 

The move towards scrapping NHS England and other health-related quangos marks a change in direction for Mr Streeting, who in January of this year said he would not embark upon a reorganisation of the NHS.

He told the Health Service Journal he could spend ‘a hell of a lot of time’ on reorganisation ‘and not make a single difference to the patient interest’, saying instead he would focus on trying to ‘eliminate waste and duplication’.

But he said he had heard former Conservative health ministers ‘bemoan’ not abolishing NHS England, adding: ‘If we hadn’t acted this week, the transformational reform the NHS needs wouldn’t have been possible.’

The Government expects that scrapping NHS England will take two years and save ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ that can be spent on frontline services.

But during the week, Downing Street would not be drawn on how many people were facing redundancy as a result of the changes.

When steep cost-cutting elsewhere is added to closing it down, the full extent of the losses is set to be between 20,000 and 30,000.

This includes thousands who work for the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) in England.

ICBs, regional health service bodies which oversee groups of NHS trusts, employ 25,000 people.

Sir Jim Mackey, who is set to become NHS England’s new chief executive from next month, has instructed the ICBs to cut their running costs by 50 per cent by the end of the year.

‘Given ICBs employ 25,000 people, that means that half of them are going to go,’ a senior NHS official told The Guardian.

Sir Jim has also told the 220 NHS trusts that provide care across England to employ fewer people in departments such as HR, finance and communications.