Labour’s 10-year health plan for the NHS is bold, radical – and familiar
The government’s 10-year health plan to revive, modernise and future-proof the NHS in England has arrived as the service is facing a dual crisis,It has been unable for a decade now to provide the rapid access – to GPs, A&E care, surgery, ambulances and mental health support – which people need and used to get,Normalisation of anxiety-inducing, frightening and sometimes fatal delay has produced a less tangible, but also dangerous, crisis: of public satisfaction, born of a profound loss of trust that the NHS will be there for them or their loved ones when they need it,Barely one in five people in Britain are happy with the NHS,Polling by Ipsos this week, just before the NHS’s 77th birthday on Saturday, found that about 60% of voters have seen little improvement in it during Labour’s first year in office.
About the same proportion do not expect things to be much better by the time of the next election in 2029.It is hyperbole to say, as the plan does, that “the NHS now stands at an existential brink”.The dissatisfaction with access problems is acute – but behind it lies enduring public support for the service itself.However, it is no wonder Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting have acknowledged the seriousness of the patient’s condition and diagnosed radical surgery.It is blindingly obvious that, as the plan says, “the status quo is no longer an option”.
The authors of the 168-page document have produced a serious, detailed and impressive piece of work,It is unsparing in describing the many failings that mean the NHS is not just often frustrating for patients to use but also ill-equipped to deal with the relentless demand for care created by an ageing, growing and increasingly unhealthy population, which is unlikely to fall soon,It also charts a new course for a service so indispensable that it is part of the nation’s DNA,Labour’s repeated claim that the Conservatives had left the NHS “broken” helped win them last year’s general election,And it has allowed the party during its time in government to blame the service’s every dysfunction – staff shortages, overcrowded hospitals, inadequate mental health care – on its predecessors.
But that time is over.The plan implicitly acknowledges that this narrative, a frequent refrain by Streeting, is no longer enough.After a year in power, this is Labour’s prescription for how it will nurse the patient back to health.This – progress on delivering the planned transformation – is now a legitimate yardstick by which to judge Labour’s stewardship of the nation’s most treasured institution.Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionThe plan is as bold and radical as Streeting says.
But its key objectives – “three big shifts” in the NHS’s modus operandi, from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention and hospital to community-based care – are familiar.They have been the stuff of previous NHS plans, and multiple inquiries, for decades – much promised, but rarely delivered.For example, the planned network of new “neighbourhood health centres”, with teams of health professionals and patient-friendly long opening hours, are very similar to the “Darzi centres” proposed by the last Labour administration, of which few actually opened.Streeting does not pretend that the job of transformation will be easy.But there is a daunting array of obstacles to overcome.
Will money needed to temporarily “double run” old and new services during the transition be found? Will staff used to working in hospitals prove willing to switch to community settings?Will the gamble on technology pay off? Will the plan’s failure to include big shifts to improve public health – such as mandatory reformulation of food or minimum unit pricing of alcohol – mean that the tidal wave of often-avoidable illness continues to outrun the NHS’s ability to treat it?And will the decision to shed half of NHS England’s 15,300 staff during its merger with the Department of Health and Social Care mean that Streeting does not have enough progress-chasers to ensure his tablets of stone are yielding real change?But the greatest risk Streeting faces is time,Alan Milburn, health secretary under Tony Blair and now Streeting’s chief adviser, admitted later that the 2000 NHS plan bought him time to rescue the service from the derelict state his predecessors had left it in,But the often snail-like pace of previous NHS reforms suggests that, despite Labour having four more years in power, even that may not be enough for this plan to produce real, tangible benefits – changes to waiting times and the convenience of interacting with the NHS that patients notice,Voters keen to see “our NHS” restored and improved may need to temper their expectations of rapid change, and ministers may have to do so too,
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Here’s Raf’s report of a rollercoaster game:That’s all from me this evening, thanks for tuning in and goodnight.England dropped six catches and collapsed dramatically with the bat but they somehow got the job done. The series stands at 2-1 and the teams head to Manchester on Wednesday for the fourth of this five match series.Here’s stand in captain Tammy Beaumont with the final words:I think that’s what you live for in cricket. As captain, those are the moments you live for
Lauren Filer leads fightback as England beat India to keep series alive
When Nat Sciver-Brunt was named as England captain in April, her teammate Tammy Beaumont might have had cause to feel slight disappointment at being overlooked, given her own success at the helm of Welsh Fire.But at the Oval on Friday evening, with Sciver-Brunt out of the third Twenty20 international against India due to a groin injury, Beaumont finally got the chance to lead the side, and managed a feat that has so far eluded Sciver-Brunt – a win against India, albeit by the skin of their teeth.India had looked to be racing to victory after Shafali Verma smashed 47 from 25 balls and Smriti Mandhana glided her way to a half-century, but after Mandhana top-edged Lauren Filer to mid-on in the 16th over England fought back at the death to seal a narrow five-run win.“Tammy was outstanding today,” her teammate Sophia Dunkley said. “She was really strong with us about backing ourselves and staying in the fight
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It was not so long ago that Tadej Pogacar was Jonas Vingegaard’s whipping boy. It came on the brutal Col de la Loze, in July 2023, when the Slovenian, dropped by another violent Vingegaard acceleration, announced wearily into his team radio: “I’m gone, I’m dead.”By last summer, as the recent Netflix series Unchained reveals, the tables had turned. Pogacar barked angry insults at the Dane after Vingegaard refused to make the pace with him on the gravel stage around Troyes. He went on to dominate the race and win his third Tour de France by more than six minutes
‘I was knackered’: Brook’s England heroics take their toll as India seize advantage
England face a battle against both India’s batters and their own bodies as they attempt to keep their opponents’ lead under control on the fourth day at Edgbaston, with Harry Brook – who has spent fewer than 15 of the 253.3 overs so far bowled off the field – describing fatigue unlike any he has experienced in his career as he put together the 303-run partnership with Jamie Smith that rescued the team’s first innings.Brook had scored 157 when he was struck by cramp that ran down “the whole right side” of his body, and added only one more run before he was dismissed by Akash Deep soon after the second new ball had been taken. That precipitated a collapse as England slumped from 387 for five to 407 all out.“I’ve never had it before,” Brook said of the cramping
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It started in the worst possible way. By the second over of the day England were 84 for five, five hundred runs and a thousand miles behind. Their best batter, Joe Root had just been caught off the ninth ball of the morning, and their captain, Ben Stokes, who has worked so many miracles for them before, had been caught off the 10th, done by a wicked, lifting delivery, nasty, brutish and short, which brushed off his glove on its way through to the keeper.The bowler, Mohammad Siraj, was on a hat-trick, and here comes England’s No 7, Jamie Smith, 24 years old, playing his 19th Test innings.The field was set, the slips were waiting, the crowd was up
England v India: second men’s cricket Test, day three – as it happened
Ali Martin’s report is here so it’s time for me to call it a day. India should still win this but the magic of Stokes’ team keeps you believing in all four results. I hope tomorrow’s another special one.I imagine India won’t be satisfied with setting England anything other than a world-record target. But there’s also the question of time – do they even bother with a declaration tomorrow? Or do they try and get to the fifth morning and toy with England’s distaste of the draw?A reminder that the highest Test score by an England wicketkeeper still belongs to Betty Snowball for her 189 against New Zealand 90 years ago
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