The National Health Service (NHS) UK is taking a bold step and is set to lay off thousands of employees.
The decision to make significant job cuts in the NHS will go ahead after the £1bn deal to finalise redundancies among healthcare workers.
NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Treasury had been in talks over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill, with the health service seeking extra funding.
The UK government said the jobs will be cut to slash unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure taxpayers' money is spent wisely.
The move was designed to raise £1bn by the year-end of the parliament to improve patient services by cutting operating costs.
The decision clearly stated that the Treasury has not granted additional funding for the departures beyond the NHS's current cash settlement.
While the NHS will be permitted to overspend its budget this year to pay for redundancies, it will recoup the costs later.
The UK's Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is expected to make further announcements on the health service in the new budget on November 26, 2025.
While addressing the NHS annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, Mr Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, UK, said he is expecting "the government will be protecting investment in the NHS.”
Streeting said, "I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.”
"At the same time, cuts to wasteful spending on things like recruitment agencies saw productivity grow by 2.4% in the most recent figures, we are getting better bang for our buck," Streeting added.
He also informed that their investment to offer more services in the evenings and weekends, arm staff with modern technology, and improve staff retention is underway.
Furthermore, the government had already announced its intention to slash the headcount across both NHS England and the other local health departments by around 18,000 administrative staff and managers, including on local health boards.
As reported by Sky News, the new bold change links with the government plan to abolish the NHS, which will be brought back into the health department within the next two years.
Additionally, the news just came after an NHS trust was fined £565,000 after a woman killed herself on a ‘death trap’ at a mental health ward.