Following plans to abolish NHS England, the BMA has called for safeguards for public health doctors and functions.

Last week, prime minister Keir Starmer announced plans to abolish NHS England and bring the health service back under the direct control of government and back into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) over the next two years.

The move was welcomed by the British Medical Association (BMA). 

“It has been increasingly clear that NHS England no longer has a grip on the health service, its staffing or the future of the NHS,” said Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council. 

He went on to say that the systematic fragmentation and incremental cuts to the NHS had made it too complex and unclear to frontline staff, patients, and the next generation of doctors just who is responsible. 

“Any reorganisation must see that the government retains the expertise needed in the coming battle to mend the NHS,” he continued. 

Retain, protect, enhance

This battle took a step forward earlier this week when BMA public health doctors called for safeguards for public health doctors and functions. 

At the BMA’s Public Health Medicine Conference held in London on 17 March, attendees voted through an emergency motion that cautiously welcomed the “further reversal of the disastrous Lansley reforms” – a referenced to the reforms of Conservative health minister Andrew Lansley under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition which followed the 2010 general election.

At the same time, however, they expressed concern about the implications for public health functions and the workforce.

“Any reorganisation must ensure that specialist public health expertise is retained, protected, and enhanced, as the Government works to improve people’s health, as well as the delivery of NHS health services,” said BMA public health medicine committee chair Heather Grimbaldeston. 

The motion, proposed by the BMA’s public health medicine registrars subcommittee, called on the BMA urgently to “support those public health consultants and other doctors affected and to lobby relevant bodies to ensure that these workers retain their jobs and that the relevant public health functions continue to be delivered and are enhanced, reversing post-2012 declines”.