![What hope does Labour have of fixing the National Health Service?](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/08/11/788b049bd8dbe79e1b7d109602ca453eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzI1ODc1ODk1-2.76792403.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp)
What hope does Labour have of fixing the National Health Service?
The IndependentA special “rapid investigation” of the National Health Service was commissioned by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, shortly after he came to office in July, and it has now reported. Headed by Ara Darzi, Baron Darzi of Denham, a highly distinguished surgeon and former Labour junior health minister, it highlights the problems faced by the NHS, and their causes. There are three major factors: the Covid-19 pandemic; the major disruption during and after the 2012 NHS reorganisation under the then health secretary, Andrew Lansley; and, especially, the “decade of austerity from 2010”. Fewer children are getting the immunisations they need to protect their health and fewer adults are participating in some of the key screening programmes, such as for breast cancer.” For his part, Streeting stresses the need for reform as well as funding, and has identified three “strategic shifts” for the NHS: moving care from “hospital to community”; abandoning paper to go from “analogue to digital”; and a change in the focus from “treatment to prevention”.
History of this topic
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