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Politics Health Health Service NHS

The government needs a new strategy for health—and there will be political blood

A former Chief Executive of the NHS says Theresa May should write a new script

By Nigel Crisp  
May 11, 2018

Embargoed to 0001 Thursday March 29 File photo dated 21/05/13 of an Accident and Emergency sign, as health leaders have warned that the number of people waiting more than four hours for A&E at hospitals in England will reach 3.6 million next year.

The NHS’s 70th birthday is being greeted by the same old arguments about money (costs, rationing and sources of funding) and hospitals (A&E waits, postponed surgery, and bed-blocking). This script, sadly, was written for the last big anniversary and the one before it.

These are very important and increasingly urgent issues. But there are others that must also be addressed. I would start with three questions—what do we want the UK’s health system to achieve? How does the NHS need to change? And who needs…

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Nigel Crisp

Nigel Crisp was Chief Executive of the NHS in England and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health from 2000-2006

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