Reforming the National Health Service (NHS) will help get the British public “back to health and work” as well as “driving economic growth”, Sir Keir Starmer will say.
The Prime Minister is to outline his plans to overhaul the UK’s healthcare system – including improving the health of the nation’s workforce – as a major ‘rapid review’, completed within just nine weeks and diagnosing damning long-term issues, is unveiled today.
Written by former surgeon Lord Ara Darzi, the report warns the NHS faces rising demand for care, coupled with low productivity in hospitals, financial challenges and poor staff morale.
And Sir Keir will tell the nation that given “working people can’t afford to pay more” to fund ongoing care for the UK’s ageing population, “it’s reform or die” under a new 10-year plan.
Speaking at an event in London on Thursday, Starmer will stress that the state of the NHS is affecting the UK’s productivity and capacity for economic growth.
“It’s not just the state of our National Health Service in crisis – it’s also the state of our national health,” he will argue.
It comes after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled now shelved welfare reforms in a bid to get Brits back to work and end what he dubbed the “sick note culture” of “over medicalising everyday challenges” – while numbers of workers accessing private healthcare are soaring.
“There are 2.8m people economically inactive due to long-term sickness, and more than half of those on the current waiting lists for inpatient treatment are working-age adults.
“Getting people back to health and work will not only reduce the costs on the NHS, it will drive economic growth – in turn creating more tax receipts to fund public services.”
Lord Darzi’s report – titled ‘Independent Investigation of the NHS in England’ – found health and care as an economic sector had grown by 33 per cent in the past two decades.
“Health and prosperity are mutually reinforcing,” he argued. “Healthier workers are more productive… [and] the health of our economy is dependent on a healthy workforce.”
However, the report states there are record numbers of economically active people due to long-term sickness, which also increased “sharply during and after the Covid-19 pandemic”.
At the start of this year, long-term sickness was the most common reason why people were out of the workforce, accounting for 30 per cent of the total or some 2.8 million people.
The rise is “driven” by an increase in mental health conditions, as well as musculoskeletal conditions and other problems or disabilities, the report found, while stating “work is good for wellbeing… there is a virtuous circle if the NHS can help more people back into work”.
Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins argued Labour had “missed an opportunity to put together meaningful plans for reform”, adding: “Investment has to be married with reform.”
Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, said the report “rightly points to the fact that the nation’s health is fraying” and urged ministers to “take coordinated action across Whitehall on the building blocks of health – like income, employment, and housing”.
Chris Thomas, head of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Commission on Health and Prosperity, said: “It is not just the nation’s health at stake, but our national economy.
“Poor health is doing major harm to economic growth and productivity. Health is not a cost to be contained, but rather an investment in prosperity.
“A new, bold reform agenda, backed by the Treasury, is needed to save lives but also to revitalise the economy.”