Turns out it wasn’t Tory underfunding that’s caused the issues in the NHS. Who knew haha
Wonder if Sir Kier the potential killer of pensioners is going to apologise to the country for lying for so many years!
It’s a combination of underfunding and massive inefficiency and waste. It needs top-down structural change and better management, standardisation of systems, fewer middle managers and more nurses and doctors.
Why does it feel like 2010 all over again.
Can someone tell me when he’s going to slide left? Should be any day now, right?
All those consultant leaches are gonna got removed
For anyone who prefers the actual report than the mirror
It is apparent from this report and from the accompanying analysis that the NHS is in critical condition. It continues to struggle with the aftershocks of the pandemic. Its managerial capacity and capability have been degraded by disastrous management reforms, and the trust and goodwill of many frontline staff has been lost. The service has been chronically weakened by a lack of capital investment which has lagged other similar countries by tens of billions of pounds. All of this has occurred while the demands placed upon the health service have grown as the nation’s health has deteriorated.
2. Some have suggested that this is a failure of NHS managers. The NHS is the essential public service and so managers have focused on “keeping the show on the road”. Some fantasise about an imaginary alternative world where heroic NHS managers were able to defy the odds and deliver great performance in a system that had been broken. They are wrong. Better management decisions might have been taken along the way, but I am convinced that they would have only made a marginal difference to the state that the NHS is in today.
3. Despite the challenges set out in this report, the NHS’ vital signs remain strong. The NHS has extraordinary depth of clinical talent, and our clinicians are widely admired for their skill and the strength of their clinical reasoning. Our staff in roles at every level are bound by a deep and abiding belief in NHS values and there is a shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients. They are the beating heart of the NHS. Despite the massive gap in capital investment, the NHS has more resources than ever before, even if productivity is far from where it should be.
4. Nothing that I have found draws into question the principles of a health service that is taxpayer funded, free at the point of use, and based on need not ability to pay. With the prominent exception of the United States, every advanced country has universal health coverage—and the rest of the world are striving towards it. But other health system models—those where user charges, social or private insurance 132 | INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE IN ENGLAND play a bigger role—are more expensive. It is not a question, therefore, of whether we can afford the NHS. Rather, we cannot afford not to have the NHS, so it is imperative that we turn the situation around.
5. It has taken more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so improving it will take time. Waiting times can and must improve quickly. But it will take years rather than months to get the health service back to peak performance. I have no doubt that significant progress will be possible, but it is unlikely that waiting lists can be cleared and other performance standards restored in one parliamentary term. Just as we in the NHS have turned around performance before, we can do so again.
6. There are some important themes that have emerged for how to repair the NHS. These include the following: o Re-engage staff and re-empower patients. Despite all the challenges and low morale, NHS staff are profoundly passionate and motivated to raise the quality of care for patients. Their talents must be harnessed to make positive change. The best change empowers patients to take as much control of their care as possible. o Lock in the shift of care closer to home by hardwiring financial flows. General practice, mental health and community services will need to expand and adapt to the needs of those with long-term conditions whose prevalence is growing rapidly as the population age. Financial flows must lock-in this change irreversibly or it will not happen. o Simplify and innovate care delivery for a neighbourhood NHS. The best way to work as a team is to work in a team: we need to embrace new multidisciplinary models of care that bring together primary, community and mental health services. o Drive productivity in hospitals. Acute care providers will need to bring down waiting lists by radically improving their productivity. That means fixing flow through better operational management, capital investment in modern buildings and equipment, and reengaging and empowering staff. o Tilt towards technology. There must be a major tilt towards technology to unlock productivity. In particular, the hundreds of thousands of NHS staff working outside hospitals urgently need the benefits of digital systems. There is enormous potential in AI to transform care and for life sciences breakthroughs to create new treatments. INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE IN ENGLAND | 133 o Contribute to the nation’s prosperity. With the NHS budget at £165 billion this year, the health service’s productivity is vital for national prosperity. Moreover, the NHS must rebuild its capacity to get more people off waiting lists and back into work. At the same time, it should better support British biopharmaceutical companies. o Reform to make the structure deliver. While a top-down reorganisation of NHS England and Integrated Care Boards is neither necessary nor desirable, there is more work to be done to clarify roles and accountabilities, ensure the right balance of management resources in different parts of the structure, and strengthen key processes such as capital approvals. Change will only be successful if the NHS can recover its capacity to deliver plans and strategies as well as to make them.
7. Many of the solutions can be found in parts of the NHS today. The vast array of good practice that already exists in the health service should be the starting point for the plan to reform it. The NHS is a wonderful and precious institution. And no matter the challenges it faces, I am convinced it can return to peak performance once again.
Rishi Sunak and wife have money.. Maybe they can help
7 comments
Turns out it wasn’t Tory underfunding that’s caused the issues in the NHS. Who knew haha
Wonder if Sir Kier the potential killer of pensioners is going to apologise to the country for lying for so many years!
It’s a combination of underfunding and massive inefficiency and waste. It needs top-down structural change and better management, standardisation of systems, fewer middle managers and more nurses and doctors.
Why does it feel like 2010 all over again.
Can someone tell me when he’s going to slide left? Should be any day now, right?
All those consultant leaches are gonna got removed
For anyone who prefers the actual report than the mirror
It is apparent from this report and from the accompanying analysis that the NHS is in critical condition. It continues to struggle with the aftershocks of the pandemic. Its managerial capacity and capability have been degraded by disastrous management reforms, and the trust and goodwill of many frontline staff has been lost. The service has been chronically weakened by a lack of capital investment which has lagged other similar countries by tens of billions of pounds. All of this has occurred while the demands placed upon the health service have grown as the nation’s health has deteriorated.
2. Some have suggested that this is a failure of NHS managers. The NHS is the essential public service and so managers have focused on “keeping the show on the road”. Some fantasise about an imaginary alternative world where heroic NHS managers were able to defy the odds and deliver great performance in a system that had been broken. They are wrong. Better management decisions might have been taken along the way, but I am convinced that they would have only made a marginal difference to the state that the NHS is in today.
3. Despite the challenges set out in this report, the NHS’ vital signs remain strong. The NHS has extraordinary depth of clinical talent, and our clinicians are widely admired for their skill and the strength of their clinical reasoning. Our staff in roles at every level are bound by a deep and abiding belief in NHS values and there is a shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients. They are the beating heart of the NHS. Despite the massive gap in capital investment, the NHS has more resources than ever before, even if productivity is far from where it should be.
4. Nothing that I have found draws into question the principles of a health service that is taxpayer funded, free at the point of use, and based on need not ability to pay. With the prominent exception of the United States, every advanced country has universal health coverage—and the rest of the world are striving towards it. But other health system models—those where user charges, social or private insurance 132 | INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE IN ENGLAND play a bigger role—are more expensive. It is not a question, therefore, of whether we can afford the NHS. Rather, we cannot afford not to have the NHS, so it is imperative that we turn the situation around.
5. It has taken more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so improving it will take time. Waiting times can and must improve quickly. But it will take years rather than months to get the health service back to peak performance. I have no doubt that significant progress will be possible, but it is unlikely that waiting lists can be cleared and other performance standards restored in one parliamentary term. Just as we in the NHS have turned around performance before, we can do so again.
6. There are some important themes that have emerged for how to repair the NHS. These include the following: o Re-engage staff and re-empower patients. Despite all the challenges and low morale, NHS staff are profoundly passionate and motivated to raise the quality of care for patients. Their talents must be harnessed to make positive change. The best change empowers patients to take as much control of their care as possible. o Lock in the shift of care closer to home by hardwiring financial flows. General practice, mental health and community services will need to expand and adapt to the needs of those with long-term conditions whose prevalence is growing rapidly as the population age. Financial flows must lock-in this change irreversibly or it will not happen. o Simplify and innovate care delivery for a neighbourhood NHS. The best way to work as a team is to work in a team: we need to embrace new multidisciplinary models of care that bring together primary, community and mental health services. o Drive productivity in hospitals. Acute care providers will need to bring down waiting lists by radically improving their productivity. That means fixing flow through better operational management, capital investment in modern buildings and equipment, and reengaging and empowering staff. o Tilt towards technology. There must be a major tilt towards technology to unlock productivity. In particular, the hundreds of thousands of NHS staff working outside hospitals urgently need the benefits of digital systems. There is enormous potential in AI to transform care and for life sciences breakthroughs to create new treatments. INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE IN ENGLAND | 133 o Contribute to the nation’s prosperity. With the NHS budget at £165 billion this year, the health service’s productivity is vital for national prosperity. Moreover, the NHS must rebuild its capacity to get more people off waiting lists and back into work. At the same time, it should better support British biopharmaceutical companies. o Reform to make the structure deliver. While a top-down reorganisation of NHS England and Integrated Care Boards is neither necessary nor desirable, there is more work to be done to clarify roles and accountabilities, ensure the right balance of management resources in different parts of the structure, and strengthen key processes such as capital approvals. Change will only be successful if the NHS can recover its capacity to deliver plans and strategies as well as to make them.
7. Many of the solutions can be found in parts of the NHS today. The vast array of good practice that already exists in the health service should be the starting point for the plan to reform it. The NHS is a wonderful and precious institution. And no matter the challenges it faces, I am convinced it can return to peak performance once again.
Rishi Sunak and wife have money.. Maybe they can help