Public support for the NHS as it reaches its 75th anniversary is “rock solid”, but the service will not be around to celebrate its 100th anniversary without investment, leading health think tanks have warned. The King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust said the NHS is the “jewel in the country’s crown” but the organisations warned that the service faces “huge challenges”.
In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the leaders of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties – Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey, the organisations said the NHS has “endured a decade of underinvestment” and criticised politicians for an “addiction to short-termism and eye-catching initiatives” which will not help the service in the long run.
“Unachievable and unrealistic” fast improvements without long-term planning will “doom the service to failure”, they said. Without action the service will face “managed decline that gradually erodes the guarantee of safety… it was designed to create”.
