NEWS
NHS reforms to remove duplication and boost frontline
The government has revealed more details on how the functions of NHS England will be absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), saying the move will reduce bureaucracy, make savings and empower NHS staff to deliver better care for patients.
The abolition of NHS England will put an end to the duplication resulting from two organisations doing the same job in a system currently holding staff back from delivering for patients, says the government. By stripping back layers of red tape and bureaucracy, more resources will be put back into the front line rather than being spent on unnecessary admin. Health and Social Care Secretary,
Wes Streeting, said: “This is the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction and most expensive NHS in history. When money is so tight, we cannot justify such a complex bureaucracy with two organisations doing the same jobs. We need more doers and fewer checkers, which is why I’m devolving resources and responsibilities to the NHS frontline.” Sir James Mackey, who took over as
Transition CEO of NHS England on 1 April, added: “We know that while unsettling for our staff, this announcement will bring welcome clarity as we focus on tackling the significant challenges ahead and delivering on the government’s priorities for patients. We now need to bring NHS England and DHSC together so we can deliver the biggest bang for our buck for patients, as we look to implement the three big shifts – analogue to digital, sickness to prevention and hospital to community – and build an NHS fit for the future.” Work will begin immediately to return many of NHS England’s current functions to DHSC. A longer-term programme of work will deliver the changes to bring NHS England back into the department, while maintaining a focus on the government’s priorities to cut waiting times and manage finances responsibly. It will also realise the untapped potential of the NHS as a single payer system, using its centralised model to procure cutting-edge technology more rapidly, get a better deal for taxpayers on procurement and work more closely with the life sciences sector to develop the treatments of the future.
EDITOR’S COMMENT You can’t stop progress…
Only one place to start this issue, which is the news of the forthcoming abolishment of NHS England, another sizable step in the reorganisation of the nation’s health service by the current government; and the biggest change since the body was created back in 2012. Recent moves have been leading up to this, with the direction of travel seeing control of the NHS moving towards Westminster. The reasoning seems sound and the changes back in 2012 had their critics, but the amalgamation of NHSE into the DHSC over the next two years is set to be a tricky process. While many things are up in the air one of the few certainties is a – perhaps prolonged – period of uncertainty for many bodies, departments and projects within NHS England and the good people that run them.
One subtopic which has caught my attention recently has been that of commissioning, the future of which is coming under scrutiny. Talk has been of decisions being made more locally; which will be music to the ears of biomedical scientists who may want to introduce new tests or equipment to their laboratories. But economies of scale are real and where does the line get drawn when deciding what works best on a regional or even national
basis? The adoption of digital pathology so far in the UK has been fragmented, but can the lead set by the trailblazers in this area now be adopted more widely? Digital equipment and working lends itself to scalability a lot more than other laboratory processes. Could these changes see a step change in the advance of digital pathology? A lot of questions for sure, both in pathology laboratories and across all areas of the NHS. Let’s hope the answers start coming soon. In the meantime, my sympathies lie with any readers facing uncertainty ahead. Within the pages of this issue, you’ll find the second part of our preview for the BSMT’s landmark 40th anniversary Microbiology Conference. Congratulations to all current and former BSMT committee members on reaching this milestone. You can meet the day’s speakers starting on page 17, followed by our preview of the trade exhibition. Further subjects this month include AI applications in flow cytometry, the diagnostic conundrum which is Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia Coli, a new blood gas analyser which is able to detect haemolysis at the point of care, and an interesting look at the expanding activities of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Research and Surveillance Centre.
andymyall@pathologyinpractice.com
UKHSA expands reporting requirements
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has expanded the list of notifiable diseases and pathogens that registered medical professionals and diagnostic laboratories in England must report. The updated Health Protection Notification Regulations (HPNR) requirements, which come into effect from 6 April 2025, will strengthen local and national surveillance and improve outbreak response capabilities for infectious diseases. Medical professionals will now be
required to report eight additional conditions, while laboratories processing human samples in England must report ten new causative agents. These changes are the result of a public consultation and assessment conducted jointly by UKHSA and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to enhance surveillance capabilities.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM APRIL 2025
Aside from existing infections, registered medical professionals will be required to report suspected cases of: Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS): influenza of zoonotic origin; chickenpox (varicella); congenital syphilis; neonatal herpes; acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) or acute flaccid myelitis (AFM); disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI); and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
Diagnostic laboratories testing human samples in England will also be required to report an additional 10 pathogens, including: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV); non- human influenza A subtypes; norovirus; Echinococcus spp; tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV); toxoplasma (congenital toxoplasmosis); Trichinella spp; Yersinia spp; respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); and Candidozyma auris.
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