The government is abolishing the NHS.
This isn’t right. The government is abolishing NHS England—the name given to the public body that manages the day-to-day operations of the NHS. Responsibility for this will be transferred to the government.
We’re seeing a lot of concern and confusion around the future of the NHS following the Prime Minister’s announcement that he will abolish NHS England.
Many people seem unsure what this means for their healthcare and whether or not this means the health service will remain free at the point of use.
The topline is that the NHS is not being abolished.
Addressing reporters on 12 March, Sir Keir Starmer announced that NHS England will be abolished to “cut bureaucracy”. Later, health secretary Wes Streeting told the House of Commons it would lead to “hundreds of millions” in savings.
However, the NHS and NHS England mean two different things.
NHS England is the name given to the decision-making body that manages the budget and day-to-day operations of the National Health Service in England.
It was established in 2012 as an arms-length non-departmental public body—or quango—under the oversight of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Abolishing this body means that the day-to-day running of the NHS will fall under the responsibility of the DHSC and the health secretary.
To be clear: this is a change to how the NHS is run and does not necessarily change how we use it.
Misinformation about the NHS can lead people to avoid accessing health services and can cause direct damage to people’s physical or psychological health.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because these posts confuse the NHS with NHS England—the body that manages it.
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