Sir Keir Starmer will announce his proposed changes to the NHS after it’s failings were highlighted in the Darzi Report (Picture: Getty)
The Prime Minister is set to announce the biggest changes to the NHS in it’s eight-decade history as he makes a speech today.
Sir Keir Starmer will say the NHS will need to ‘reform or die’ as a major report on the health service is set to be published.
The Prime Minister will set out his plans for tackling long waiting lists, improving the nation’s health, and shifting the focus towards community services after a damning report from Lord Darzi found the NHS is ‘in serious trouble’.
The rapid review, completed in nine weeks, diagnoses the problems in the NHS and sets out themes for the Government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.
The study argues the NHS is facing rising demand for care as people live longer in ill health, coupled with low productivity in hospitals and poor staff morale.
Speaking at an event in London on Thursday, the Prime Minister will say: ‘The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.
The report has said the health of the nation has ‘deteriorated’ over the last few years (Picture: Getty)
The changes set to be announced today are said to be the biggest in NHS history(Picture: Getty Images)
‘Raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of an ageing population – or reform to secure its future.
‘We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die.’
Sir Keir will pledge to work on three fundamental areas of reform to make the NHS fit for the future.
Key findings from the Darzi Report
His report also set out how:
• The health of the nation has deteriorated, with more years spent in ill-health.
Factors affecting health, such as poor quality housing, low income and insecure employment, ‘have moved in the wrong direction over the past 15 years, with the result that the NHS has faced rising demand for healthcare from a society in distress’.
• There has been a ‘surge’ in multiple long-term conditions, including a rise in poor mental health among children and young people. Fewer children get their vaccines and fewer adults now participate in things such as breast cancer screening.
• Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services. The report says ‘long waits have become normalised’ and ‘A&E is in an awful state’. By April 2024, about one million people were waiting for mental health services. The overall NHS waiting list stands at 7.6 million.
• People are struggling to see their GP. ‘GPs are seeing more patients than ever before, but with the number of fully qualified GPs relative to the population falling, waiting times are rising and patient satisfaction is at its lowest ever level.’
• Cancer care still lags behind other countries and cancer death rates are higher than in other …read more
Source:: Metro
