PA MediaThere will be no extra NHS funding without reform, Sir Keir Starmer says, as he promised to draw up a new 10-year plan for the health service.The pledge came after a damning report warned the NHS in England was in a “critical condition”.The prime minister said the new plan, expected to be published in the spring, would be the “the biggest reimagining of the NHS” since it was formed.However, the Conservatives said the government needed to turn “rhetoric to action” after scrapping its plans to reform social care and build new hospitals.Sir Keir set out three key areas for reform – the transition to a digital NHS, moving more care from hospitals to communities, and focusing efforts on prevention over sickness. The report was the result of a nine-week review by the independent peer and NHS surgeon Lord Darzi.He was asked by Labour, shortly after the election, to identify the failings in the health service, but his remit did not stretch to coming up with solutions.His findings present a stark picture of a service which he says is in “serious trouble” with declining productivity, “ballooning” waits and “awful” emergency services that put patients at risk.Getty ImagesResponding to the report during a speech in London, Sir Keir said the problems would not be solved by just more money.”We can’t duck long-term change. This isn’t just going to be solved by more money, it’s solved by reform.”Sir Keir said it would be “so different” from everything that has gone before as he talked about changing it into a “neighbourhood health service”.This would mean “more tests, scans and healthcare offered on high streets and towns centres” alongside bringing back the family doctor and offering digital consultations to those who want them.”Hear me when I say this – no more money without reform.”National missionSpeaking in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Wes Streeting pledged to be “tough on ill-health” and its causes as he evoked the spirit of New Labour.He gave a nod to Sir Tony Blair’s “tough on crime” mantra as he outlined a “national mission” to improve health opportunities across the country.Mr Streeting said he wants to be “honest about the problems” facing the NHS and be “serious about fixing them”, as he updated MPs about the “raw, honest and breath-taking” Darzi report commissioned by the new Government.The report from Lord Darzi, who served as health minister in the last Labour government, said the NHS was still struggling with the aftershocks of the pandemic and falling well short of its key targets for cancer, Accident & Emergency (A&E) and hospital treatment.It said this was contributing to poor survival rates in cancer and heart disease, and falling rates of satisfaction with the service.The report said the NHS had been left chronically weakened by the policy of austerity of the 2010s and, in particular, a lack of investment in buildings and technology. The NHS has crumbling hospitals, fewer scanners than many other developed nations and is years behind the private sector in terms of digital innovation, it says.This has contributed to falling levels of productivity in hospitals, with rises in staff outstripped by increasing numbers of patients needing care.It has meant hospitals have been sucking u …
