Nick TriggleHealth correspondent
PA Media
Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.
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.
‘Pragmatic step’
As the job cuts result in savings in future years, the NHS will be expected to recoup the costs further down the line.
Overall, government sources said no extra money is going into the NHS beyond what was agreed at the spending review this year – an extra £29bn a year above inflation by 2028-29.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast that patients and NHS staff had told him the health service had “too many layers of management, too many layers of bureaucracy”.
“People want to see the front line prioritised, and that is exactly what we’re doing,” he said, adding he would tell NHS leaders “we’re finally on the road to recovery” in his speech later on Wednesday.
In a speech to health managers at the NHS Providers’ conference in Manchester later, Streeting is expected to say: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.
“We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in front-line care.
“It won’t happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, we will rebuild our NHS so it
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