Billions to be redirected back into patient care with NHS reform
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-11)

Health Secretary announces plans to redirect billions of pounds from NHS reform back into patient care.

- Wes Streeting gives the go ahead to NHS leaders to deliver next phase of integration of NHS England with savings to be reinvested in frontline care
- The reforms to slash unnecessary bureaucracy will raise £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament to improve services for patients
- Health Secretary to tell NHS leaders to make every penny count from Chancellor’s £29 billion record funding boost
Patients will experience better care thanks to billions of pounds saved from ending duplication and slashing bureaucracy across in the NHS, the Health Secretary will announce on Wednesday (12 November 2025).

These reforms will also give more power and autonomy to local leaders and systems - stripping away endless red tape and bureaucracy so they have more freedom to better deliver health services for their local communities.

The size of the centre has more than doubled since 2010. The 2012 reorganisation of the NHS led to worse care for patients at soaring costs, leaving taxpayers paying more but getting less. The reforms will see around 18,000 administrative posts abolished, saving more than £1 billion that will be redirected to frontline patient care.

Every £1 billion saved in bureaucracy costs is enough to fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations.

Today’s announcement comes ahead of next week’s Budget, which will focus on:
- cutting waiting lists
- cutting the national debt
- cutting the cost of living
- driving more productive and efficient use of taxpayers money by rooting out waste in public services
Addressing the NHS Providers Conference in Manchester, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting is expected to say:

The government is protecting investment in the NHS at the Budget, worth an extra £29 billion to the health service. I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.

We have already cut waiting lists for the first year in 15 years, recruited 2,500 more GPs, and cut ambulance waits for patients with conditions like heart attacks and strokes. Our investment to offer more services at evenings and weekends, arm staff with modern technology and improve staff retention is working. At the same time, cuts to wasteful spending on things like recruitment agencies saw productivity grow by 2.4% in the most recent figures - we are getting better bang for our buck.

We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in frontline care. It won’t happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, we will rebuild our NHS so it is there for you when you need it once again.

The government has confirmed it will deliver on the planned timetable of bringing NHS England back into the Department of Health and Social Care within 2 years - a move that will put an end to the duplication of 2 organisations doing the same job.

Speaking at the NHS Providers Conference in Manchester on Wednesday, Wes Streeting will give NHS leaders the go ahead for a 50% cut to headcounts in integrated care boards (ICBs) - organisations introduced in 2022 which plan health services for specific regions.

The government has committed to reducing the running costs of ICBs, which have previously not had a clearly defined role. ICBs will now have a clear and focused purpose as strategic commissioners - a much clearer and sharper role than previously.

ICBs will be tasked with transforming the NHS into a neighbourhood health service, with a greater focus on preventing illness.

It will mean they will be leaner organisations, with half their current posts removed.

Funding arrangements have been agreed with HM Treasury and will be from within the existing funding settlement. We will not be cutting any investment to the NHS frontline. Further detail will come forward in the coming weeks.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England CEO, said:

This is good news for NHS staff and patients - allowing our organisations to move forward and provide greater certainty about the future for all our staff and leaders.

It will free up resources to invest in frontline services and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy that slows us down and gets in the way of the improving care.

The NHS will continue to focus on the practical challenges ahead. We are pulling out all the stops to support the service through winter, making progress on elective and urgent and emergency care targets.

Against a difficult backdrop, the Chancellor has protected funding for the NHS - securing a record £29 billion boost to get it back on its feet and fit for the future, with up to £10 billion allocated towards technology and digital transformation, thousands more GPs to be trained, and funding allocated to deliver an additional 700,000 urgent NHS dentist appointments a year.

Already around 100 community diagnostic centres are now open, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and more surgical hubs are carrying out thousands of additional operations to help people get treatment faster.

And this month’s Budget will continue to deliver on the priorities that matter most to people across the country, including cutting NHS waiting lists.

The Health and Social Care Secretary will address the annual NHS Providers Conference in Manchester today (12 November 2025), where he will tell NHS leaders that they therefore have a duty to make every single penny from the investment count.

The government has already demonstrated how extra investment can make a difference:
- cutting waiting lists by 200,000
- improving patient satisfaction with GPs for the first time in a decade
- increasing productivity at an unprecedented rate
Efficiency savings have already allowed this government to give NHS staff another above-inflation pay rise, and over the next few years it will allow us to invest billions more in healthcare in the most deprived parts of our country.

The reintegration of NHS England and restructuring of ICBs will save £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament. This is part of a wider efficiency drive that will see a total of £17 billion saved over 3 years from departmental budgets.