Wes Streeting hails head of London hospitals 'busting' through waiting list backlogs as he unveils NHS reforms

Transcript

00:00Have you been able to make all of the changes that you've wanted to make or has there been

00:05too many layers of bureaucracy or management or red tape or rules and regulations or pushback

00:12that has stopped you doing all that you want to do?

00:16Well we're just getting started but I've heard lots of criticism over the years that the NHS

00:22is too centralised, too much top down command and control and now I sit at the top of that system,

00:30at the top of the mountain of accountability in the NHS. I not only recognise that criticism,

00:36I share it and that's why a big part of what I'm announcing today is actually about giving

00:40away power and control, trusting great leaders, recognising great performance

00:46and letting go of central control. I genuinely think that's how we'll get better leadership,

00:51better management, more innovation and as we do that and as we put more resource and more power

00:59and more freedom to the frontline, we will also be shrinking the centre because I do think there

01:05is a legitimate criticism to be made that as new layers have been introduced in the NHS and we've

01:11had new things like integrated care systems, integrated care boards, we have not seen the

01:16centre shrink at the same time. The NHS has a culture of and, and more and we need to start

01:24learning the words stop and or and make better use of taxpayers money and then the final thing

01:32I'd say is there are lots of people working in the NHS who when they kind of see some of the

01:36headlines around league tables and transparency might assume therefore more targets, more tick

01:42boxes and more bureaucracy. Actually what we want to do is is to have less of that and a real focus

01:48on the things that really matter in terms of patient care, patient safety and good quality

01:54outcomes. So as people see more from us in the coming weeks and months with things like the NHS

01:59mandate, the mandate, the instructions to deliver given by the government, the operating plan from

02:04the NHS, people will see a shift in that direction because we've got too many targets and if you're

02:09measuring everything actually what you end up doing is measuring nothing

02:13and and that's part of the reform that we're leading in the NHS.