MEDICINE BALLS
Merger he wrote…
THE merger of NHS England (NHSE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is not proving as simple as planned. This is probably because it wasn’t planned: health secretary Wes Streeting stressed his commitment to keeping NHSE intact as recently as, er, 31 January.
According to a staff note leaked to the Health Service Journal, NHSE’s temporary new leaders, Sir Jim Mackey and Dr Penny Dash, wanted “to deliver an initial picture of what the new organisation might look like by the end of April”, but this is “taking slightly longer than we’d hoped”. Instead, there will be a staff briefing “later in May” for those who haven’t already jumped ship or been shown the door. Others may be taking legal advice on impending redundancy.
Part of the delay is down to the fact that NHSE and the DHSC have so far failed to recruit “a national transition director to oversee the merger”. As the HSJ reports: “They had hoped to quickly bring in a senior and experienced manager, but discussions with at least one potential recruit have fallen through.”