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Health Secretary Wes Streeting has just been caught in an embarrassing contradiction.
Despite having billions of pounds available to hire new NHS medical staff – who aren’t joining up, Treasury rules meant none of it could be used on redundancy payments for office workers who are losing their jobs with the closure of NHS England.
Rather than save Streeting’s blushes, the Treasury forced him to go cap-in-hand, begging for the cash needed to make the payments.
Here’s BBC News:
“The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
“NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
“The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.”
How ridiculous!
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Abolishing NHS England, as a body, isn’t inherently a bad idea. Many people across the service have long argued it became a bloated intermediary — one that duplicated local functions, slowed decision-making, and created an extra layer of control between government, regional boards, and actual hospitals.
The original justification back in 2012 — to keep politicians at arm’s length — was sound in theory, but in practice, NHS England evolved into a parallel bureaucracy, often issuing its own priorities, reporting demands and paperwork that local providers then had to juggle alongside Department of Health requirements.
That’s why people like Jeremy Hunt now call it a “bureaucratic monster.”
So the principle of folding it back into the Department of Health and Social Care could make sense, if handled properly. The trouble lies in the implementation and financial mechanics.
In September 2023, NHS England reported an 8.4 per cent vacancy rate, equating to about 121,000 full-time (or equivalent) posts unfilled.
Assuming an average NHS salary of £35,000–£40,000 per year, that implies £4–5 billion in salary funding is budgeted but not spent because posts remain empty.
Some of this money could be used to pay off redundant NHS England staff now – right?
Wrong.
The UK’s public spending system is famously rigid:
- Each department’s budget is fixed within Treasury-set boundaries.
- Funds are divided into revenue (day-to-day spending) and capital (infrastructure) — and can rarely be moved between them.
- Any “underspend” in one area can’t easily be redeployed to cover a shortfall elsewhere without Treasury consent.
The NHS can’t use unspent money from one part of its operation to pay for another — even though, in human terms, that would clearly make sense.
Instead, Streeting has had to negotiate a completely unnecessary £1 billion overspend of public funds, while four-to-five times as much cash as is needed sits unspent.
Well, that’s one reason he shouldn’t replace Keir Starmer as prime minister, right there.
Starmer’s supporters have suggested that Streeting wants to oust the struggling prime minister from Downing Street and take over.
But if he can’t even make the argument for intelligent money management to people whose jobs are supposed to be all about that, it’s clear he isn’t up to the job.
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Billions for new medics – but NHS has to beg to pay off the staff it’s sacking
Share this post:
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has just been caught in an embarrassing contradiction.
Despite having billions of pounds available to hire new NHS medical staff – who aren’t joining up, Treasury rules meant none of it could be used on redundancy payments for office workers who are losing their jobs with the closure of NHS England.
Rather than save Streeting’s blushes, the Treasury forced him to go cap-in-hand, begging for the cash needed to make the payments.
Here’s BBC News:
“The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
“NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
“The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.”
How ridiculous!
Support Vox Political!
With social media algorithms acting as gatekeepers – allowing users to read only what their owners want them to, sites like Vox Political need the support of our readers like never before.
You can help by making a donation:
https://Ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
Abolishing NHS England, as a body, isn’t inherently a bad idea. Many people across the service have long argued it became a bloated intermediary — one that duplicated local functions, slowed decision-making, and created an extra layer of control between government, regional boards, and actual hospitals.
The original justification back in 2012 — to keep politicians at arm’s length — was sound in theory, but in practice, NHS England evolved into a parallel bureaucracy, often issuing its own priorities, reporting demands and paperwork that local providers then had to juggle alongside Department of Health requirements.
That’s why people like Jeremy Hunt now call it a “bureaucratic monster.”
So the principle of folding it back into the Department of Health and Social Care could make sense, if handled properly. The trouble lies in the implementation and financial mechanics.
In September 2023, NHS England reported an 8.4 per cent vacancy rate, equating to about 121,000 full-time (or equivalent) posts unfilled.
Assuming an average NHS salary of £35,000–£40,000 per year, that implies £4–5 billion in salary funding is budgeted but not spent because posts remain empty.
Some of this money could be used to pay off redundant NHS England staff now – right?
Wrong.
The UK’s public spending system is famously rigid:
The NHS can’t use unspent money from one part of its operation to pay for another — even though, in human terms, that would clearly make sense.
Instead, Streeting has had to negotiate a completely unnecessary £1 billion overspend of public funds, while four-to-five times as much cash as is needed sits unspent.
Well, that’s one reason he shouldn’t replace Keir Starmer as prime minister, right there.
Starmer’s supporters have suggested that Streeting wants to oust the struggling prime minister from Downing Street and take over.
But if he can’t even make the argument for intelligent money management to people whose jobs are supposed to be all about that, it’s clear he isn’t up to the job.
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