London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

Ministers to 'seize control of NHS' in biggest health reform in decade

Ministers to 'seize control of NHS' in biggest health reform in decade

The Government is planning to take more control of the NHS in the biggest health reform the UK has seen in a decade, according to a report.

Ministers are set to have the power to block the closure of hospitals and overrule medical bosses under new plans, The Times claims.

They will also be able to put warnings on unhealthy food, order the NHS to prevent obesity and scrap forced privatisation and competition within the NHS.

The reform would also give them the opportunity to improve national dental health by putting fluoride in water, which studies have shown cuts tooth decay in children by a third.

Currently, only local councils can make decisions about water supplies but ministers believe they have little incentive to use fluoride as they have no involvement with dental health.

The white paper will allegedly be published this month, meaning the changes can be pushed through by next April next year.

The healthcare bill would reverse the 2012 Health and Social Care Act which saw David Cameron’s Government give clinicians control over budgets and encouraged competition with the private sector.

Ministers intend to help NHS services to work with councils to create a better local system of care.

Local councils can currently make decisions about putting fluoride in water

The Government wants the NHS to work on preventing conditions as well as treating them


The white paper says: ‘One in three patients admitted to hospital as an emergency has five or more health conditions, up from one in ten a decade ago.

‘While smoking rates may be decreasing, diabetes, obesity, dementia and mental health issues are on the rise.’

The idea is to focus on ‘lifestyles, healthy behaviours and prevention’, as well as ‘treating particular conditions’.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is now the chairman of the Health and Social Care Committee, has said ‘joined-up care’ could be a ‘positive’ step for the NHS.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘What that means is that you need a lot more joined-up care. It is not just going to hospital to have your hip replaced, having that sorted out and going home again.

‘It’s people who have got lots of things that need to be sorted out, using the health service many times during the course of the year and the structures need to be improved to make that possible.

‘I think that is what these reforms are intended to do, so I think they could be very positive.’

But Mr Hunt added that there needs to be some type of ‘accountability mechanism’ for how taxpayer money is spent by the NHS.



He added: ‘How we make sure that the NHS continues to be held accountable for these huge sums of public money is something that, I am sure, people will want to ask.’

Dr Fiona Lemmens, chair of the Liverpool NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, told Times Radio it would be a ‘challenge’ for NHS reforms to be considered during the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: ’We should always be looking to improve. So continuous improvement is what I would be aiming for rather than massive overhauls.’

The Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We do not comment on leaks. The NHS set out the need for new legislation to support the changing health and care sector in the NHS Long Term Plan, and last summer the Health and Social Care Secretary outlined how we must apply the lessons of this pandemic as we continue to deliver this plan.

‘From tackling bureaucracy to driving forward the integration of health and care services, we are rightly considering where changes need to be made to help us build back better. Full details will be set out in due course.’

The NHS said: ‘The NHS has come together to draw up practical proposals that will make it easier for those delivering health and care to work together to deliver the best possible care for patients, without some of the bureaucracy and fragmentation implicit in the 2012 Act.

‘These proposals were set out publicly in the NHS Long Term Plan in 2019 and further developed last year, drawing on what the best local health systems are already doing.’

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×