The NHS in England is in a ‘critical condition’ after years of underfunding, finds a new government-commissioned report on the state of healthcare.
The review, authored by Lord Ara Darzi, a surgeon and member of the House of Lords, was undertaken to establish a ‘proper diagnosis’ and inform a 10-year plan to reform the NHS.
Darzi said that the NHS was ‘starved of capital due to the Conservative government’s stringent austerity program,’ leading it to fall behind other countries in terms of investing in diagnostic equipment, technology and buildings.
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Sir Keir Starmer launched the report this morning and declared that the ‘NHS must reform or die’. He vowed to get the NHS back on its feet and outlined the Labour party’s plans for tackling long waiting lists, improving the nation’s health and shifting the focus towards community services.
Key findings in the report revealed that cancer survival rates in Britain are substantially worse than its European neighbours as well as the USA, Australia and Canada, long waits for treatment in emergency rooms have caused an additional 14,000 deaths each year since 2009, and district nurse numbers have declined significantly by 45% between 2009 and 2024.
On the eve of the Darzi review, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the King’s Fund called on the government to take ‘radical action’ to prevent the situation from worsening.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive said: ‘A shift to delivering preventative care is vital for patients and our NHS. Prevention helps keep people healthy in their communities, eases the pressure on hospital services and is much more cost effective. But the nurse numbers we need to deliver this shift have collapsed and we’re set to have thousands fewer than we did 20 years ago. That is shocking.’
The RCN wants to see more investment in the nursing profession by introducing a loan forgiveness scheme for nurses working in public services and improved nurse pay on a ‘long-term basis’ to support with retention.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund said that the review is a ‘mandate for government to take bold, decisive action’.
‘The biggest improvements to health and care in this country will come from prioritising services outside of hospital. That means greater investment in the primary and community services that support people before they end up needing hospital treatment. It means political focus on public health strategies that keep people healthy and prevent illness in the first place. And it means finally getting to grips with the much-needed reform of adult social care,’ she said.