The NHS may be broken but it is not beaten said the Prime Minister after an independent report found the system to be in critical condition.
Responding to the report by Lord Darzi, Kier Starmer said that his government is working on a 10-year plan to fix the National Health Service.
“The NHS may be in a critical condition but its vital signs are strong and we need courage to deliver long-term reform,” Sir Keir added.
The NHS needs “major surgery not sticking plasters”, he said, adding that the choice about how to meet the demands of the service is. “Don’t act and leave it to die, raise taxes on working people or reform to secure its future”.
‘It won’t be easy, it won’t be quick,’ he said, promising ‘the biggest reimagining of the NHS since its birth’.
Before setting out the 10-year plan, the prime minister laid out the ‘unforgiveable’ record of the Conservative government, describing the 2010s as ‘the most austere decade since the NHS was founded’.
He said the Tories took a ‘scorched Earth approach’ to health reform under former health secretary Andrew Lansley that are ‘still being felt today’
He insisted Labour’s recovery plan will take more than one parliamentary term because of the current state of the NHS.
He ruled out increasing taxes on working people to pay for it, saying the NHS must ‘reform or die’. And while he said reform would take ‘major surgery, not a sticking plaster’ the NHS is ‘broken but not beaten’ and ‘it’s vital signs are strong’.
And he pledged “I’m not prepared to see even more of your money spent on agency staff who cost £5,000 a shift.”
The reform will include three big shifts.Moving from an analogue to a digital NHS. That means building on the NHS app and fully digitalise patient records.
Shifting more care from hospitals to communities and Changing from a “national health service to a neighbourhood health service”, as well as being bolder in moving from sickness to prevention which will mean more checks to catch and prevent illnesses earlier.
Responding to Lord Ara Darzi’s independent investigation of the NHS in England, Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chair, said:
“The previous government gaslit doctors and refused to acknowledge the damage caused by years of underinvestment. The BMA has tirelessly spoken out about the challenges our health service faces, particularly regarding staff shortages, so one might expect that Lord Darzi’s review, which echoes many of the Association’s concerns, would be met with a sense of relief—finally, someone understands. While the findings are unsurprising, seeing this report so clearly call attention to just how broken our beloved NHS has become, with the devastating impact on our patients, is deeply sobering.
“It’s no secret that the newly elected government inherited an NHS widely wrecked from year upon year of relative underinvestment – especially in general practice. It is imperative that the Health Secretary trusts doctors and experts, fully appreciates the gravity of the situation, and takes action swiftly. Action that engages GPs and funds them properly as the expert gatekeepers to the rest of the healthcare system; action that involves reversing previous poor policy decisions which have led to avoidable and undesirable working conditions; action that reverses the exodus of highly skilled doctors who feel undervalued and overworked. This country has not trained enough doctors to meet patient demand: the current workforce crisis was inevitable.
“A decade and more of mismanagement has erased the trust and goodwill of many frontline staff. Lord Darzi’s report points out that it is both possible and crucial that waiting times are improved quickly but without a workforce, there is no health service. We have seen the constructive dismissal of general practice yet this new government has the opportunity to value doctors and save our NHS through immediate engagement and investment in GP contracts.
“This must be balanced with continued progress on restoring doctors’ pay, preventing the loss of junior doctors to other countries that truly value their contributions and removing absurd pension rules that discourage senior doctors from taking on the extra shifts needed to reduce waiting lists: doctors want to be treating patients. The BMA has been at the forefront of calling for the reform our health service needs, addressing its crippling staff shortages and enabling doctors’ skills and expertise to be utilised to their full.
“The issues in secondary care cannot be fixed without addressing the crisis in general practice, driven by an insufficient supply of GPs and the growing demand from patients returning repeatedly while awaiting secondary treatment. The chronic underfunding of primary care undermines continuity of care and leaves GPs across England with no choice but to participate in the collective action we’re now witnessing. One of this government’s key manifesto promises was to bring back the family doctor. It’s time to listen to GPs and collaborate with them to make this a reality.
“The country is getting sicker, with the most disadvantaged disproportionately affected; in parallel, we need investment in social care, public health and illness prevention to reverse the stark health inequalities outlined in the report. The government is right to call the needed reform ‘radical’. Without radical action, the NHS won’t survive. As pointed out by Lord Darzi, ‘we cannot afford not to have the NHS’.”
“Engaging with doctors is essential, valuing the staff tasked with resuscitating the NHS is critical, but an honest conversation with the public about what money goes where, what will and will not be provided, and what will be rationed until additional resources are made available, is imperative.”
