The new government’s plans bring the sustainability of the NHS into doubt

Last week’s announcement of the government’s plan for the NHS followed by a mini-budget, which was seen by many commentators as the most radical for many years, have worrying implications for the future of the NHS. They suggest that there is no early prospect of resolving what amounts to a humanitarian crisis affecting patients waiting for an ambulance or admission to a hospital bed, or at the end of a long queue for investigation and treatment. Ministers seem to hope that sticking plaster solutions will suffice when more fundamental and long term changes are required.Thérèse Coffey’s plan for the NHS fell well short of what was needed.1 Her well trailed ABCD priorities—to improve performance in the ambulance service, deal with backlogs that built up during the pandemic, increase spending on social care to reduce delayed transfers of care from hospitals by redirecting funds from existing budgets, and review pension tax…
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