14 March 2025

FODO responds to government plans to abolish NHS England

The Prime Minister has announced plans to abolish NHS England as part of a wider shake-up of public service bureaucracy and obstacles to change.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the radical move would free up frontline NHS leaders to innovate by developing new, productive ways of working to deliver better care for patients.

FODO, as the Association for Eye Care Providers, welcomes any actions that can remove unnecessary barriers to change and streamline the delivery of healthcare in ways that will improve access to eye care in England.

FODO agrees with the health secretary's comments that "more radical reform is needed" to transform primary care and address the frustrations leaders experience under the current system. This is essential to deliver Lord Darzi's recommendations and the government's top NHS goals - of shifting care from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

These shifts will enable the NHS to make better use of the skills and facilities of primary eye care clinicians to treat more patients closer to home, reduce pressure on hospitals and GPs and prevent people unnecessarily losing their sight on long hospital waiting lists.

The health service's current over-dependence on an outdated and unsustainable hospital-based model of care is putting patients at risk and is long overdue for reform.

As leaders in eye care, FODO will continue to work with the Department of Health and Social Care, the government's new health leadership structures, ICBs and sector stakeholders to bring this about.   

 
Notes for Editors  

This press release is FODO's response to the government announcement on 13 March 2025:

1.     World's largest quango scrapped under reforms to put patients first

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/worlds-largest-quango-scrapped-under-reforms-to-put-patients-first

2.     NHS England: Health and Social Care Secretary's statement

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nhs-england-health-and-social-care-secretarys-statement

About us

FODO is the leading national association for eye care providers working in primary and community care settings. Our members provide more than 80% of all NHS primary eye care services each year. Our members include the full range of large and small employers who are the main workforce and infrastructure investors in NHS primary eye care.

Contact us - email: healthpolicy@fodo.com  Telephone: 020 7298 5151