Sir Keir Starmer will warn the NHS must “reform or die”, as the government publishes an independent investigation into the state of the health service.
The report – ordered by Health Secretary Wes Streeting days after he took on the role – was carried out by peer and surgeon Lord Darzi.
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It will conclude the NHS is in a “critical condition”, with record waiting lists and too much of its budget spent in hospitals, as well as saying the nation’s health had significantly deteriorated over the past 15 years.
However, Lord Darzi will also say the service’s vital signs “remain strong”, as the sector is filled with staff who “shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients”.
In a speech on Thursday, the prime minister will point to the probe’s findings and lay the blame at the Conservatives’ door – especially the impact of their 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which the report described as a “calamity” that had “proved disastrous”, as well as claims there has been a decade of underinvestment.
But he will offer his own solutions, with a 10-year plan from Labour that promises to have “the fingerprints of NHS staff and patients all over it”.
Sir Keir will say: “Our NHS went into the pandemic in a much more fragile state. We had higher bed occupancy rates, fewer doctors, fewer nurses and fewer beds than most other high income health systems in the world.
“And let’s be clear about what caused that… a ‘scorched earth’ approach to health reform, the effects of which are still felt to this day.
“The 2010s were a lost decade for our NHS… which left the NHS unable to be there for patients today, and totally unprepared for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.”
