No need for ‘ventriloquists' to give NHS patients a voice
Wes Streeting suggested the patient safety landscape is 'cluttered', with NHS leaders receiving 'competing and contradictory instructions' from different organisations.
He also said the creation of 'totally undemocratic' organisations is 'self infantilising' on politicians.
It comes as reports from over the weekend suggested hundreds of bodies that oversee and run parts of the health service will be axed under the upcoming 10-year health plan.
This could include Healthwatch England, the National Guardian's Office and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.
In March, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also unveiled plans to scrap NHS England in a bid to slash bureaucracy and duplication.
When asked about the reports on Healthwatch England and other organisations at the Local Government Association's annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Mr Streeting said: 'There are way too many checkers and not enough doers in the system.
'And I think there are lots of ways in which we have tried to create new bodies to fulfil the failure of other parts of the state to do their job effectively.
'I mean, the revolution we're leading in patient voice will mean we can get rid of some of the intermediaries, and we don't need ventriloquists to speak for patients, patients can speak for ourselves if we're given the opportunity to do it.'
He also called for 'more weight' to be given to democratically elected representatives, adding that some organisations were created to 'do the jobs politicians should be doing'.
'We're councillors, leaders, cabinet members, mayors and Members of Parliament, and at the moment, I think lots of us would feel that as elected representatives, that we don't have enough sense of agency and partnership and democratic accountability that I think we are owed,' Mr Streeting said.
'I think this actually speaks to the corrosion of of our democracy and politics more generally; we keep on inventing a whole load of organisations to do the jobs that politicians should be doing, and thereby sending a message to the public, that voting doesn't change anything, that we don't trust politicians and government to lead things locally or nationally, so we create a totally undemocratic set of organisations to do things for us, because we almost don't trust ourselves.
'And not only, I think, is that self infantilising on the politicians, it's also wasting public money that is in scarce supply. So we're taking the axe to lots of those organisations.'
Mr Streeting also vowed to 'take a much more data and evidence based approach to quality and safety and try and declutter the patient safety landscape'.
He said: 'I understand how we got here. Many of my predecessors, with good intentions, encountered challenges around patient safety and quality.
'They could see the bodies that already existed weren't doing an effective enough job.
'Rather than grasp to nettle and sort those organisations out, they created new organisations.
'If they felt that regulations weren't working effectively, they introduced more regulations, and in doing so, gave false comforts themselves and false comfort to the country that by adding more organisations and more regulations, we will necessarily be safer.
'We have cluttered the patient safety landscape to such an extent that the poor people on the front line and NHS leaders are on the receiving end of a whole number of sometimes competing and contradictory instructions from a wide range of organisations all trying to do the same job.'
Mr Streeting also vowed to start working with local government on NHS winter planning 'much earlier' this year.
He said: 'I am under no illusion about how serious the pressures are, and you'll be pleased to know that we are going much faster this year on winter planning, and we'll be engaging with you much earlier in the year on preparations for winter.'
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