LONDON, Sept 11 (Askume) – The British government is developing a ten-year plan to overhaul the National Health Service after an independent report found the state of the NHS in dire straits, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday.
The state-run NHS is in crisis and has faced its toughest winter in recent years as it struggles to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a long backlog of elective surgeries and strike action.
The previous Conservative government failed to reduce waiting lists, blaming strike action, while Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide election victory in July, made reaching a pay deal with health workers a top priority.
But he said the NHS also needed “major surgery without plasters” to tackle the rising costs of caring for an ageing population without raising taxes.
“We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or death,” Starmer will say, according to advance excerpts of Thursday’s speech released by his office.
“This Government is stepping up work on a ten-year plan… which will move away from the top-down approach of the past and will have the imprimatur of NHS staff and patients.”
Starmer’s speech comes after the release of a report by Lords Surgeon General Ara Darzi, who has been tasked by the government with examining the state of the NHS.
Darzi’s report found that due to a lack of investment and a chaotic top-down reorganisation a decade earlier, the resilience of the NHS was at an “all-time low” when it entered the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“I am shocked by the findings of this inquiry – not just in terms of healthcare, but in terms of the health of the nation,” Darzi said.
“Too many people have waited too long and the quality of care has declined in too many clinical areas.”
Starmer said health care problems were also impacting the economy, with Britain’s labour market facing a tough time.The losses are being incurred because 2.8 million people have become economically inactive due to long-term illness.
Starmer said he wanted new plans to move the NHS from analogue to digital, put more care in communities rather than hospitals, and focus more on preventing people from getting sick in the first place.
Starmer’s government is responsible for the National Health Service (NHS) in England, but has devolved responsibility for services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
