Sunday 20 November 2022 12:23 AM Health Secretary Steve Barclay vows to be 'ruthless' in axeing NHS red tape to ... trends now
Ministers have vowed to be 'ruthless' in axeing NHS red tape to save tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money and free up resources for patient care.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay is planning major reforms to slash the number of bureaucrats and cut hundreds of targets so doctors and nurses can be liberated from 'time-sapping admin' and focus on patients.
The initiative comes after he and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt launched an NHS review which is expected to recommend scrapping vast numbers of benchmarks that hospitals are expected to meet.
Former Health Secretary Mr Hunt has previously described NHS performance targets as 'Stalinist', likening them to the 'politburo handing down tractor targets which were always met but never delivered'.
The review could see NHS England, the body which manages the health service, shedding a third of its pen-pushers.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay (pictured at Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Wednesday) is planning major reforms to slash the number of bureaucrats and cut hundreds of targets so doctors and nurses
Former Health Secretary Mr Hunt (pictured) has previously described NHS performance targets as 'Stalinist'
Targets deemed pointless and used only to prove bureaucrats' worth are also set to be abandoned in a bid to put patient outcomes ahead of jobsworth box-ticking. Many such targets have not been met for years.
Lengthy and byzantine guidance sent to NHS Trusts every year could also be cut down as part of the review.
Writing in today's Mail on Sunday, Mr Barclay said patients 'rightly want this extra money [awarded in the Autumn Statement] to go into fixing the frustrations they face' – rather than funding bureaucrats.
'We must be ruthless in removing barriers that get in the way of what matters to patients – reducing the amount of time clinicians spend on time-sapping admin, drawing up more cost-effective standardised designs for NHS buildings and publishing online charts making management clear, so taxpayers can see where their money is going,' he said. He added that he wanted to devolve decision-making to staff and give greater freedom to doctors and nurses to do their jobs.
Last week Mr Hunt announced that he had
