NHS organisations a hindrance, says former Health Secretary

Alan Milburn has claimed that the current NHS system is ‘confused and complex’, and is hindering its ability to meet its current challenges.

The former Labour Health Secretary, who held the position for four years until 2003, led a review for consultants PwC and has called for a gradual evolution of the structures, claiming the support for reform within the health service is present.

One of the most confusing aspects of the NHS, the group claims, is the ‘myriad’ of national organisations, with the work of NHS England, NHS Improvement, Health Education England and Public Health England blurring the lines of authority, and leaving hospitals with the ‘daunting challenge of managing competing requirements’.

PwC’s latest report Redrawing the Health and Social Care Architecture, looks at the future role of national bodies in the healthcare system and calls for radical devolution to local areas. With research finding that 70 per cent of NHS staff in England do not understand the role of the national bodies in the healthcare system, PwC is calling for local areas to be given the power to raise funds for their regional health service.

The review calls for health and social care to be brought under one department, and in time, for regional bodies be created to take charge of budgets for the NHS and council-run care services.

The results of a PwC poll of over 1,000 NHS staff and 2,000 members of the public found that 71 per cent of NHS staff in England want the healthcare system reformed and 66 per cent of NHS staff in England are frustrated by the division between health and social care.

Milburn said: "Despite the best efforts of its leaders to make it work, the current national architecture is confused and complex. The artificial divide between health and social care makes as little sense as the division of labour between a myriad of national bodies. Organisational change is always a risk but without it, the move towards integrated systems will be undermined."

David Morris, PwC partner and author of the report, added: “Our research highlights a persistent underlying sense of confusion about the roles of national bodies in the NHS, coupled with frustration over the division between health and social care. Evidently there is growing appetite for reform.

“It is essential that this debate does not fall to the bottom of the pile and I hope this report is a welcome addition to the discussion and helps point to some much needed solutions to the growing problems the NHS faces.”

The Department of Health has contended that there is no need for more reform as there was a plan for the future ‘that is being delivered within the NHS's existing structures’.