Bitter pill for a better NHS

Streeting: It is addicted to overspending | Jobs will go but money will help front line

- BY LIZZY BUCHAN

THE NHS is “addicted to overspending” and assumes that someone will “come along to bail them out”, the Health Secretary said yesterday.

Wes Streeting delivered his damning verdict in the wake of the decision to scrap NHS England, in a major change to how the health service is run.

He admitted patients could be disrupted by his plans, which the government hopes will claw back millions for the NHS front line.

He said: “I'm responsible for an NHS that can’t see an ambulance arrive on time.

“I'm responsible for an NHS where people can't always get a GP appointment when they need one, where NHS dentistry is barely existent in parts of the country.

“So there are fundamental problems I need to fix.”

NHS England, which has overseen the running of the NHS since 2012, is being swallowed up by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Hundreds of other bodies are being reviewed by incoming NHS England chair Penny Dash.

Mr Streeting said: “I'm going after the bureaucracy, not the people who work in it.