Lord Darzi has delivered to Keir Starmer’s government a concise and clearly argued account of the NHS’s woes in England. Some of its findings, such as those about waiting lists, are familiar. Themes and conclusions – for example, the underfunding of primary care relative to hospitals, and the rise of obesity and chronic illness – are broadly as expected. But this is a valuable piece of work by a respected doctor, and an important step towards the 10-year plan that Labour has promised next year.
It sets out how record-high public satisfaction with the NHS in 2009 was reduced by austerity to a record low. It explains that the funding promise made on the service’s 70th anniversary, in 2018, was broken. And it describes how inequalities in availability and delivery of healthcare mean that poorer people, ethnic minorities and those with mental illnesses are particularly poorly served.
