British PM Starmer scraps health body in search of savings and better care

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) -Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday he would scrap a body overseeing the state-funded health system in England in a bid save hundreds of millions of pounds and cut waiting lists and bureaucracy.

Starmer was elected in July on a promise to grow the economy and rebuild public services, including the increasingly costly National Health Service, which an independent report said in September was in a critical condition.

The impact of the COVID pandemic, an aging population and a series of strikes have left patients waiting months and sometimes years for procedures, dragging on the economy.

In Britain, there are 2.8 million people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Starmer said on Thursday that getting rid of NHS England would remove an unnecessary layer of red tape and mean more financial resources for frontline care in hospitals.

"I can't, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy," Starmer said in a speech in the northern English city of Hull. He said the change would mean money for more staff and lower waiting times.

The British government runs the health service in England through its health ministry - the Department of Health and Social Care. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland look after their own health systems.

NHS England was established in 2012 by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government as a separate "arms-length" body to helps decide spending priorities, oversee the service in England and negotiate contracts.

Health minister Wes Streeting said in on Thursday it had resulted in duplication and too much focus on compliance rather than value for money.

Reform would be "difficult" but would deliver savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year, he said.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Andrew Heavens)