NHS in 'critical condition' and needs reform and huge cash injections to bring it back to life

11 September 2024, 22:31 | Updated: 12 September 2024, 11:19

England's NHS is in a "critical condition" and needs huge injections of cash and reform to bring it back to life, a damning review has revealed.

Sir Keir Starmer says the health service needs to "reform or die" with "major surgery, not sticking plaster solutions", after the rapid probe from independent peer, Lord Darzi.

Soaring waiting lists, delays in A&E, an ageing population and millions struggling to access care have left the NHS on its knees.

A staggering 14,000 people are dying early thanks to soaring delays in A&E in England, the shock report says.

Sir Keir will embark upon the "biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth" .

Labour say the state the Tories have left the NHS in is "unforgivable", and they will enact a 10-year long term plan to fix it.

The "devastating" findings mean that people are unhealthier than they were a decade ago, and usually suffering from multiple long-term conditions.

The shocking findings of our "broken system" conclude that cancer and cardiovascular outcomes for patients are getting worse, and that the UK is lagging behind countries around the world to properly treat people quickly enough.

Lord Darzi points the finger at politicians for leaving the health service in a dreadful state, calling them "choices made in Westminster".

But he insists that the NHS has "turned things around before" and he's "confident" it can be fixed again.

Other dire warnings include:

• One in ten patients wait more than 12 hours for help in A&E - with A&E queues more than doubling from an average of just under 40 people in 2009 to over 100 in 2024
  
• Crumbling Victorian wards infested with cockroaches are still being used to house mental health patients, in desperate need of upgrades
  
• No progress was made in diagnosing cancer faster for eight years to 2021
  
• Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services
  
• Cuts to community care mean there are too many staff in hospitals but doing fewer procedures
  
• The "dire state of social care" means 13% of NHS beds are occupied by people waiting for care elsewhere
  

But the PM will insist the health service has to "reform or die" and vowed he won't put up taxes again to pay for another cash injection.

A surgeon of 30 years, Lord Darzi warns that a triple whammy of austerity, the disastrous 2012 reorganising of the NHS, and the pandemic, have hit the service harder than at any point in its entire history.

Cuts to budgets and former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley's reforms means that the NHS was "uniquely exposed" to Covid, and why waiting lists have soared higher than any comparable country.

His landmark report says that there is still hope in the NHS "vital signs" to fix the deep-rooted issues but it's up to politicians to be honest about the problems.

Bad choices from politicians have led to the health service failing to deliver, he concludes, with poor quality housing, low income and insecure employment making the situation even worse.

But funding alone is not enough and there needs to be fundamental reform too, he will say, with more care in the community and digital upgrades.

Lord Darzi said last night he was "shocked" by what he found from his deep dive into data from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and other organisations.

He said: "Far too many people are waiting for too long and in too many clinical areas, quality of care has gone backwards.

"My colleagues in the NHS are working harder than ever but our productivity has fallen.

"In the last 15 years, the NHS was hit by three shocks - austerity and starvation of investment, confusion caused by top-down reorganisation, and then the pandemic which came with resilience at an all-time low. Two out of three of those shocks were choices made in Westminster.

"It took more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so it’s going to take time to fix it. But we in the NHS have turned things around before, and I’m confident we will do it again."

The PM will say the NHS "went into the pandemic in a much more fragile state" than other nations, with fewer doctors, nurses and beds than others.

He will dub the 2010s under the Tories as "the most austere decade since the NHS was founded", leaving it "totally unprepared for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow".

And some of the millions waiting for help could be working if they were getting seen earlier.

Sir Keir will add: “There are 2.8 million people economically inactive due to long term sickness, and more than half of those on the current waiting lists for inpatient treatment are working age adults.

“Getting people back to health and work will not only reduce the costs on the NHS, it will drive economic growth – in turn creating more tax receipts to fund public services.”

He will lay out the bare bones of a new plan to fix it, based on digiting the health service, more care in the community, and being "bolder" in helping stop people from getting sick in the first place.

The PM will say the country needs "the courage to deliver long-term reform" and the NHS is at a "fork in the road" to face the task ahead.

He will add: "What we need is the courage to deliver long-term reform - major surgery not sticking plaster solutions.

"The NHS is at a fork in the road, and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.

"Raise taxes on working people to meet the ever-higher costs of aging population - or reform to secure its future.

"We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die.

"Only fundamental reform and a plan for the long term can turn around the NHS and build a healthy society. It won’t be easy or quick. But I know we can do it.

"The challenge is clear before us; the change could amount to the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth.”

Last night health experts welcomed the probe and accepted there would be "unprecedented challenges" ahead.

Head of NHS England Amanda Pritchard said: "Our staff are treating record numbers of patients every day despite ageing equipment and crumbling buildings, a surge in multiple long-term illnesses, and managing the long-lasting effects of the pandemic.

And Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, admitted: "Times are tough for NHS trusts tackling unprecedented financial and operational challenges.

"While teams are working hard to get services back on track, it is clear waiting times across many services are unacceptable and we need to address the underlying issues outlined in Lord Darzi’s report so we can deliver the care we all want for patients.

“The Labour government will be judged on its actions. It has stopped new hospitals from being built, scrapped our social care reforms and taken money from pensioners to fund unsustainable pay rises with no gains in productivity.

They need to move from rhetoric to action.”“Long waiting times for patients, particularly in community and mental health services, are a symptom of years of underinvestment, stop-start funding in the NHS and major workforce challenges.

“Lord Darzi’s report acknowledges what trust leaders have long called for - if we want to improve patient care and boost productivity, we need significantly more capital investment in the NHS alongside wider reforms including a shift to providing more care closer to home."

But the Tories accused Labour of missing an opportunity for "meaningful plans for reform".

Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: "We Conservatives recognise that investment has to be married with reform.

This is why we brought forward long-term plans for productivity, tech, Pharmacy First, virtual wards, attracting pharmaceutical research and training and retaining staff.

We did this whilst boosting investment in the NHS in real terms every single year.