Success of ambitious Labour NHS pledges will require further funding than planned

Responding to Labour's mission to create an NHS fit for the future, Nuffield Trust Chief Executive Nigel Edwards said:

“The Labour leader is right to focus his attention on preventing ill health and tackling some of the big killers. For too long, successive Governments have fixated on performance targets when international comparisons show we lag other countries considerably when it comes to survival rates from diseases like cancer, heart attack and stroke.

“The Labour party’s proposals to tackle both the big killers and deteriorating waiting times, whilst shoring up care given closer to home, are welcome but extremely ambitious. And delivering them will require time, staff and more long-term funding than Labour have so far pledged.

“Poor health outcomes and spiralling waits for care are not problems amenable to a quick fix.  The reasons behind these problems are years if not decades in the making: a failure to plan and grow the NHS workforce, woeful underinvestment in NHS buildings and equipment, and an inability to grapple with reforming social care. And at heart these problems are the consequences of successive short-termist “sticking plaster” solutions to the challenges of delivering healthcare to an ageing and increasingly unequal society.

“To succeed on these pledges, the Labour party will need to put more money than planned into the NHS, solve the growing crisis of recruitment and retention to health and social care roles, and act swiftly to shore up the crumbling NHS buildings and inadequate equipment which are holding back progress.

“Achieving this all within five years seems unlikely. The goals are sound, but the trick will be to avoid falling into the short-termist trap that has beset previous governments. The Labour leader seems to recognise the importance of taking a longer-term approach to the major problems affecting our NHS and care systems. Time will tell if this laudable plan will succeed.”