Energy, social care, pay: Truss’s first 100 days

Sidelined in leadership debates, health is suddenly centre stage. One of Liz Truss’s first splashy acts as UK prime minister (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2166)1 is expected to be the transfer of billions of pounds from NHS budgets to social care. The new health secretary for England, Thérèse Coffey, is also deputy prime minister—if nothing else, this is an elevation for the health portfolio in the cabinet. Will it mean anything more?Getting social care back on its feet will aid in the safe discharge of patients from acute care and prevent admissions at the front end of the NHS. But the drain on NHS funding comes at the worst possible time, after a summer crisis with ambulances queuing outside hospitals, a massive backlog in elective care, imminent winter pressures, and preparations for a covid resurgence.With a general election just two years away, waiting lists will loom as a toxic issue at the polling booth….
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