Following the publication of NHS England’s performance figures from August, Nuffield Trust CEO Nigel Edwards has warned that newly appointed prime minister Liz Truss is inheriting a health service in “critical condition” and a new delivery plan is needed.
Commenting on the findings, Edwards said: “These figures clearly show what a monumental challenge faces the new prime minister and health secretary in delivering on the NHS. The total waiting list now exceeds 6.8 million, and in August over 130,000 patients were left waiting over four hours for a hospital bed. These waits are now worse than they were in previous winters. The new prime minister inherits an NHS in critical condition.”
Referring the independent health think tank’s analysis published last week, Edwards added that the current crisis facing the NHS had been a long time in coming.
“This crisis has been years in the making. As our analysis shows, the pandemic simply served to ramp up pressure on an already beleaguered health service, with staff shortages, a failure to tackle social care and inadequate investment putting the NHS on the back foot when Covid hit. Even without the pandemic we would have seen over 5 million people waiting for routine care.
“The new government is absolutely right to prioritise health and social care as a matter of urgency. Exactly how to turn this around as we go into winter will not be an easy task but a relentless focus on the workforce, social care and hospital buildings are essential.”
With Liz Truss and her health secretary Therese Coffey yet to outline the government’s plan for the future of the health service, Edwards emphasised that ministers needed to take tangible action to alleviate its woes.
“We are still waiting for detail from the new prime minister on how they plan to deliver for the NHS, but it has been evident for some time that more of the same isn’t going to cut it.”
Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash
