{"id":234141,"date":"2025-07-03T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/234141\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T07:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:41:09","slug":"thursday-briefing-labour-is-betting-on-an-nhs-overhaul-to-deliver-real-change-but-can-they-pull-it-off-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/234141\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday briefing: Labour \u200bis bet\u200bting on \u200ban NHS overhaul to \u200bdeliver \u200breal \u200bchange\u200b, but can they pull it off? | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Wes Streeting\u2019s first statement as health secretary was a startling one. Just a day after Labour\u2019s historic election triumph, he declared that<\/a> \u201cthe NHS is broken\u201d. Now, almost exactly a year later, he returns with a 10-year plan to fix it, in what\u2019s been billed as the most ambitious health reform agenda in a generation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to overstate the significance of this moment. Reforming the NHS was central to Labour\u2019s election manifesto, and last year prime minister Keir Starmer made the consequences clear: \u201cReform or die,\u201d he warned, and with it, staked the next election on his government\u2019s ability to deliver meaningful change.<\/p>\n

NHS leaders, unions, thinktanks, patient groups and other key stakeholders may not agree on every detail, but they are united on one thing: the NHS<\/a> is in crisis and change is urgently needed.<\/p>\n

But what exactly is in this plan and will it make a difference? To find out, I spoke to health policy editor Denis Campbell<\/strong>, who has been covering the NHS for two decades. That\u2019s after the headlines.<\/p>\n

Five big stories<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    UK politics <\/strong>| Downing Street has said Rachel Reeves will keep her post<\/a> and has not offered her resignation, after the chancellor was seen in tears at prime minister\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    US news <\/strong>| The federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs reached its conclusion<\/a> on Wednesday, with the jury finding the music mogul guilty on two charges The government has said that it will seek the maximum 20-year sentence.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    UK news <\/strong>| Detectives investigating the former nurse Lucy Letby have passed evidence to prosecutors alleging she murdered and harmed more babies, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    US military <\/strong>| Iran\u2019s nuclear program was set back roughly one to two years<\/a> as a result of the US strikes on three key facilities last month, according to an assessment by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Covid inquiry <\/strong>| Discharging untested patients from hospitals to care homes during the Covid crisis was the \u201cleast worst decision\u201d, the former health secretary Matt Hancock has told a public inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In depth: \u2018\u200bThe NHS is no longer able to give people the care they need, when they need it\u2019Key stakeholders agree the NHS is in crisis. Photograph: Jeff Moore\/PA<\/p>\n

    At its most basic, the 10-year plan is the Labour government\u2019s detailed 150-page blueprint to get the NHS back on its feet after nearly 15 years of serious neglect, Denis Campbell told me. \u201cIt aims to address the fact that the NHS is sadly no longer able to perform its most essential function, which is to give people who need care the care they need, when they need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Waiting times are too long for many of the NHS\u2019s most vital services, including GP appointments, ambulances, mental health support and surgery.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe 10-year plan is meant to get the NHS back on its feet in a way that we as patients, voters and taxpayers will appreciate and notice, but crucially, to also modernise the health service, to make it work better and more efficiently to help deal with the fact that we live in a tech-driven age, with an ageing population and the fact that people expect health care to be much more convenient in the way that so many things in life are now,\u201d Denis added.<\/p>\n

    How will it do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The 10-year plan proposes to do this with three big \u201cshifts\u201d:<\/p>\n

    From hospital-based to community-based care: <\/strong>Services are moved out of hospitals and into community settings like GP surgeries, clinics and the promised new neighbourhood health centres.<\/p>\n

    From analogue to digital:<\/strong> Rely more on digital tools like AI to spot problems early, speed up diagnoses and improve efficiency.<\/p>\n

    From treating illness to preventing it: <\/strong>Focus more on keeping people healthy \u2013 by tackling smoking, obesity and misuse of alcohol \u2013 instead of just treating illness when it occurs.<\/p>\n

    But, Denis told me, there are many practical questions, particularly on the first shift: \u201cWhat will these new centres actually look like? Will they be new places or expansions of existing GP practices? Who will staff them? Is there any money behind this bold vision to make it a reality?\u201d<\/p>\n

    On staffing, the NHS workforce continues to grow in England. \u201cThere are 1.5 million people, but the NHS in England has for many years had roughly about 100,000 vacancies<\/a> at any one time. So we know the NHS in England does not have the staff it needs already.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe government is unveiling an ambitious and potentially voter-friendly plan to make the NHS more accessible, responsive, convenient and patient-friendly, with lots of consumer friendly positive language like this,\u201d Denis said. \u201cBut we do have to ask the hard question: if there isn\u2019t enough people hired to do what the NHS already does, where will the extra people come from to provide these extra services?\u201d<\/p>\n

    Denis added that while there has been some progress that the 10-year plan can build on, there\u2019s still a crisis to accessing care. \u201cToo many people wait too long. So there\u2019s clearly a big job to be done here to make the NHS as accessible as the government is saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    What has the reception been so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Denis was being inundated with responses from thinktanks, unions, patient groups, and other stakeholders when I spoke to him. \u201cMany are welcoming the boldness of the government\u2019s vision, but they\u2019re questioning the practicality of delivering all of this and the timescale, what will it take to do this?\u201d<\/p>\n

    For many of these stakeholders, much of the plan is appealing, Denis added \u2013 who wouldn\u2019t want a local neighbourhood health centre where you can get an X-ray or scans, mental health support, pharmacist services and GP appointments? But there is scepticism.<\/p>\n

    Denis groups the criticism into three main concerns: it will take a long time, there\u2019s no extra money for new buildings or services and there\u2019s not enough bold action on public health.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThis is billed as a 10-year health plan, not just the 10-year NHS plan. The government says it will improve the nation\u2019s health. But several thinktanks like the King\u2019s Fund are saying it doesn\u2019t include enough bold action to tackle the drivers of ill health and the fact we\u2019ve got an increasingly sick population, particularly through diet and obesity and misuse of alcohol,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

    He added that the criticism is that there\u2019s no equivalent in this plan to past transformative policies like the sugar tax or indoor smoking ban. \u201cThe NHS at the moment is not able to outrun a growing tidal wave of preventable illness that has been lapping at its shores for some years now. We have an ageing population and an increasingly sick population, will this plan make it any more able to cope with this growing burden of illness? At the moment, unfortunately the answer to that question is, \u2018No\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Is this the last chance to save the NHS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The prime minister\u2019s positing that this is \u201creform or die\u201d certainly makes it seem that way, but Campbell suggested that it\u2019s a bit hyperbolic.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe NHS is so deeply embedded in British life that no one is going to replace it with something else. But there is enormous pressure on this government to deliver. Keir Starmer promised transformative change into something people would notice and value,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe\u2019re a year into this government, and England doesn\u2019t yet look much improved. So the pressure on this plan to deliver real, visible improvements quickly is intense. By framing it as \u2018reform or die\u2019 the prime minister is setting a very high bar for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

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