As Wes Streeting today pledges to rebuild the crisis-hit NHS, we ask if you think Labour can save our ailing health service.
As the backbone of our healthcare system, its future impacts millions of lives. With increasing pressures from funding gaps and workforce shortages, prioritising the NHS should finally address urgent health needs and restore public trust.
Which is why the Health Secretary is this week launching a “national conversation” on reform, inviting patients and health staff to share their experience and help shape a decade-long plan for service.
It will include new neighbourhood health centres, allowing patients to see family doctors, care workers and other professionals under the same roof. It will also enable those with multiple conditions to get treated for minor injuries such as sprains without waiting hours in NHS hospitals.
Mr Streeting said: “If we want to save the things we love about the NHS, then we have to change it. Our 10 year health plan will turn the NHS on its head – transforming it into a Neighbourhood Health Service – powered by cutting-edge technology, that helps us stay healthy and out of hospital. We will rebuild the health service around what patients tell us they need.”
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“It’s going to take time, but it is our mission to take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, get it back on its feet, and make it fit for the future.”
It follows Lord Darzi’s damning review last month which found the NHS to be in a “critical condition”. In his 160-page report he found A&E queues have doubled while patients are dying as they wait to be seen and staff morale is at rock bottom.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard added: “Our hospitals are facing record demand, with growing pressures from an ageing population, rising levels of multiple long-term illnesses and patients with more complex needs.
“So it is vital we find new ways to ensure people are able to get the right care, closer to home – and only end up in hospital when it’s really necessary. Throughout its 76-year history, the NHS has never stood still – it has adapted and innovated to meet new challenges and offer patients the best possible care.
“We need to do more to reach the standards the public rightly expect, and the 10 Year Health Plan is a chance to learn from patients, public and staff about their experience – whether good, bad or frustrating. We want to make the best practice, normal practice. So when we open engagement, please get involved and help make the NHS fit for the future.”
A Treasury insider revealed to The Mirror earlier this month that “we know that cutting NHS waiting lists is a priority for people”; and Keir Starmer has committed to transforming the health service into one that’s “fit for the future,” making slashing waiting times a central goal of his government.