Ministers acknowledged that they did not assess the impact of thousands of NHS managers, and that they alleged that the controversial phase-out was "reckless" and "huge risk" before moving forward.
The NHS's 42 Regional Integrated Care Board (ICB) in England was told to cut its operating costs by 50% by the end of the year, a move that would result in about 12,500 job losses. This is an important part of the government’s plan, revolutionizing health services, including the abolition of NHS England and leveraging the massive savings from cutting management positions to improve its financial position and fund frontline care.
However, the government has not assessed the impact of halving the ICB's running costs before approving the move, acknowledged by NHS reform minister Karin Smyth.
Smyth acknowledged that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) failed to respond in a written reply to Liberal Democratic health spokesman Helen Morgan. The shocked NHS boss described the cruel scrapping of so many managers as "vacancies." They warned that it will strip the ICB so that they will not properly fulfill their responsibilities to delegate critical services and monitor the quality of NHS care in their areas.
"This reckless policy is done on the hoof to please the treasury, rather than considering the best suited for patients who have not been cared for so long," Morgan said.
“The government also said that adults are back in the room and cannot even assess the impact of significant changes to the NHS, which will have an impact on patients across the health service?
"Of course, the NHS needs to be more effective. However, it is not serious to impose coverage without having to consider the consequences," Morgan added.
NHS England’s new CEO Sir Jim Mackey is half of the 25,000 staff members of the 42 ICBs after giving up what HSJ called “50% bombshell” in March, part of a tough decision to be part of the service’s “financial reset”. The website said last week that this caused "angry and surprise" among NHS Trust leaders.
Former Health Minister Andy Burnham said last week that he had "real concerns" about ICB staffing in remarks reported by the Health Services Journal (HSJ). A shuffle could force the ICB to merge and shrink to between 23 and 28. This will also disperse their employees to deal with the "major challenges" of the NHS and the "wrong approach".
The government's NHS restructuring will also see NHS England lose half of its 15,300 workforce, and DHSC has provided 215 trusts from some of its 3,300 staff and some of the Health Services Department's 215 trusts to remove potentially thousands of positions to help provide maximum efficiency savings.
According to unions representing many NHS managers, including managers of the ICB, the combined loss of work means the government is "taking huge risks". Managers say the ICB job was rushed, thinking badly, and going too far.
“The scale of the cut will undermine the capacity to manage government health tasks, including making 'three transformations', increasing productivity and reducing waiting lists; leading to unnecessary reorganization; damaging services to the public; unemployment of thousands of skilled NHS workers, making staff professionals and workloads; and the remaining workloads of employees;
“I agree that the danger of the government’s approach is going from risky to reckless is the speed it is trying to cut.”
Restell urged Health Minister Wes Streeting to suspend the crazy speed of his reforms so that proper planning and risk management can be done, while studies have shown that fewer AX officials in the NHS have shown that the system is already a health system with the lowest proportion of managers worldwide.
“The government’s decision to cut 50% of ICB employees is any idea of what the service delivery is actually about. This hasty redesign of the ICBS is underway before the government releases its 10-year strategy for the NHS.
Smyth said in his written answer that the ICB's mission is to develop plans by the end of May, clarifying how they will manage their resources to deliver priorities. The department has not yet influenced the NHS decision to reduce operating costs. ” she told Morgan.
In a previous written replies on the cost of ICB running, Smyth defended the job clearance. “Reduced ICB operating costs are a necessary step to ensure that the most needed frontline services provide more funding.
“These changes will simplify commissioning and administrative costs so we can prioritize patient care and improve health”.
NHS Federation CEO Matthew Taylor warned that the huge scale and speed of imminent layoffs in the NHS present a "danger" that ministers will be unable to meet their commitments to improve NHS waiting times and change the way they work.
Morgan added that the streets should enter parliament and explained to members of Congress why bloody treatments for the Iceba post occurred and why the government failed to assess its potential consequences.