The government in post after the election should declare a national health and care emergency, calling on all parts of society to help improve health, care and wellbeing, said experts in the first report of
The NHS also needs long term thinking and stable, consistent policies, they contributors wrote, and as such, they recommend establishing an independent Office for NHS Policy and Budgetary Responsibility to hold government to account for delivery of NHS plans and policies.
Additional recommendations include creating a cross-government and cross-sector health, care, and wellbeing strategy, developing better ways to connect patients, the public, and community groups with the NHS, particularly at local level, and giving immediate priority to tackling inequalities in access and outcomes, with particular focus on the disadvantage and racism suffered by ethnic groups both as patients and NHS staff.
Future papers in the series will examine and produce recommendations on how we deliver health and equity, how we should fund and pay for the health service, and how we develop a motivated, happy, well trained workforce while prioritising sustainability and producing a greener health service.
“The national health and care crisis we are facing requires an urgent, robust, and values based response,” said Kamran Abbasi and Commission co-chairs Victor Adebowale, Parveen Kumar, and Liam Smeeth in an editorial.
“It requires new thinking and old values.”
“Above all, it requires us to recommit to the founding principles of the NHS, to put the health and wellbeing of our population first, and to revive the spirit of Aneurin Bevan and a nation that came together in the hope of creating a better, fairer, healthier world,” they concluded.
