Our fight

The NHS now needs strategic leadership and investment as
well as innovation. Most importantly, it needs to reconnect to
the values articulated by Nye Bevan that made it such a great
and unifying concept. Sadly, the essence of Bevan’s NHS has
been gradually lost by creeping privatisation. Perhaps the most
important element of the COVID-19 pandemic was to hold a
mirror up to the NHS; what was reflected back was hardly a
surprise, but was still a shock to us all.
So what must the NHS now do to survive? In short, it should
heed the seven following recommendations of the independent
and non-politically aligned LSE–Lancet Commission on the
future of the NHS:
Recommendation 1: increase investment in the NHS,
social care, and public health. They recommend that
NHS funding increase by a minimum of 4 per cent a year
in real terms over at least the next ten years.
Recommendation 2: improve resource management
across health and care at national, local and treatment
levels. The LSE–Lancet Commission recommend that
decisions on resource allocation should be underpinned by sound principles and robust methods and that a strategic
view is taken of the long term. This should address
healthcare inequality, and the need to address the inverse
care law.
Recommendation 3: develop a sustainable, skilled, and
inclusive health and care workforce to meet challenging
health and care needs. Strategic implementation will
require money and changes in emphasis on the health,
morale, and well-being of the health and care workforce.
Recommendation 4: strengthen prevention of disease
and disability and preparedness to protect against threats
to health.
Recommendation 5: improve diagnosis in circumstances
where evidence exists to support early diagnosis, for
improved outcomes and reduced inequalities.
Recommendation 6: develop the culture, capacity, and
capabilities of the NHS and social care to become a
national learning health and care system.
Recommendation 7: improve integration between health,
social care, and public health and across different providers,
including the third sector.
Healthcare must now move to the top of the political agenda if
things are to change. Only the public can decide which political party should take on such an important responsibility, but
past performance offers an important clue about who to trust
with this task.

---