When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2021, the NHS saved my life. I felt this Rolls-Royce machine kick in as I was treated by a world-class surgeon, equipped with a robot, and cared for by a group of incredibly caring nurses. I saw the best of the NHS.
But I also saw how the current NHS is failing patients. After I was discharged from the hospital, I was pretty much left to fend for myself, despite not being able to get myself into bed. I had to wait months longer than the recommended time for scans to check that my cancer had not returned because of the ever-increasing backlog.
The most frustrating moment came when I went to the hospital to get the results of my follow-up tests. Upon arrival I was told that the results had not been processed in time and that I had to arrange another time to return. I was lucky enough to have a boss who didn’t mind if I had to take time off from work. But for someone on a zero-hours contract, the cost of the NHS not texting test results, or even sending a message saying results are not ready, could be two days’ wages.
These are the inefficiencies and inconveniences that I cannot see from my desk in the Department of Health and Social Care, but that patients see every day. And so we call on them to provide insights and ideas to transform our NHS.
Lord Ara Darzi’s inquiry into the NHS showed that the service was broken. A toxic cocktail of fourteen years of underinvestment, top-down reorganization and the inability to modernize has left the healthcare system facing the worst crisis in its history.
Darzi has made the diagnosis, now it is up to us to write the prescription through our ten-year plan. It will require the biggest rethink of health care since its inception. The plan sets out how we transform the NHS into a ‘community health service’, powered by cutting-edge technology, helping us stay healthy and out of hospital.
But the government cannot do this alone. Today we launch the biggest national conversation about the NHS since its inception. We will host events across the country, including citizens’ assemblies, asking the public what needs to change and putting patients in the driver’s seat of NHS reform.
This will also be the largest employee engagement exercise in history. When I visited Singapore General Hospital last year they told me about a program called Away with stupid thingswhich I think the NHS could do something with. It does what it says on the tin. Giving hospital staff some control over their working lives improved their morale and patient care. Over the coming months we’ll be inviting NHS workers to tell us about the stupid things that stop them doing what they do best, and their ideas to change the NHS.
I know how hard it must be to battle a broken system to get patients the best care possible, only to go home at the end of the day knowing that your best may not be good enough. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The cavalry is coming, and together we can turn this around. My message to NHS staff is: stay and help us change this.
The challenges facing the NHS today are enormous, but the opportunities are enormous. The revolution taking place today in science and technology will change the way we receive healthcare. Nye Bevan would have had no idea in 1948, but the model he created makes the NHS the best-placed healthcare system in the world to benefit from rapid advances in data, genomics and predictive and preventive medicine.
It allows us to introduce patient passports so that whether you go to a GP or a hospital surgeon, they have your full medical history. We will be able to assess a child’s risk of disease from birth so that we can take steps to prevent it from happening. It means the NHS can work hand in hand with the life sciences sector and provide access to our large and diverse range of data.
The conversation we begin today will include questions such as how we can ensure that patient data is protected and anonymized. People are keen to help save the NHS, but are understandably worried about Big Brother. We will also explore how we can get the best possible deal for the NHS in return, whether that means extra funding, discount offers on the latest medicines or priority access, so that the very latest treatments are available to NHS patients, not just for those who can afford to pay.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to the NHS for a moment in our lives when it was there for us or a family member. Now we have the chance to repay our debts.