The UK is currently mired in a public health crisis, with waiting lists for operations stretching into the millions. It’s clear the NHS is broken, but nobody seems to know how to fix it. The Tories are doing next to nothing.
Consequently, many people are pinning their hopes on the presumed incoming Labour government. People want to see real change, including more funding pumped into the service. There must be a way to get the NHS out of what is being described as “the biggest crisis in its history.”
So what’s Labour going to do if it takes power later this year?
Shift Focus Away From Hospitals
The first reform will be shifting the NHS away from a hospital-centric focus. Instead, Labour will aim to bring more doctors to communities.
New Labour began a massive hospital-building drive when the party came to power under Tony Blair in 1997. The aim was to give the people of Britain the same level of public healthcare access as other advanced European democracies, putting years of conservatism and Thatcherism to bed.
However, while the rate of expansion was prolific, it destroyed the organic elements of medicine. New Labour envisioned a production-line-like system where sick patients would go in and healthy ones would come out.
Keir Starmer’s Labour has a different vision. They want big spending, but they also recognize that medical provision is a communitarian effort. It’s not the same as a factory.
Shift To Prevention
Keir Starmer’s Labour also believes in shifting the focus to prevention, not treatment. Yes, the government accepts that it sometimes needs to put people back together. But the main thrust should be to stop people from getting sick in the first place.
Interestingly, this plan doesn’t involve more doctors. In fact, it could lead to less. If the government puts in place the right policies, demand for healthcare services could go down significantly, since everyone would be so healthy.
However, whether the party has the political clout to carry out reforms that will make people healthier remains to be seen. Inevitably, it will involve heavy taxes on unhealthy food, and people will claim this discriminates against the poor, the very demographic Labour claims to be so compassionate about.
Shifting to prevention will also disturb major business interests. Big food companies will see their profits dwindle and may face draconian legislation that makes their shareholders upset.
Shift To Digital Services
Finally, Labour wants to shift to digital services – as has virtually every government for the last twenty years. It is doing this as protection for clinical risks but also to make the service more efficient, similar to a private company.
Labour believes that digital services will cut red tape and speed up diagnoses, appointment bookings, and so on. This, it says, will give front-line staff more time to focus on patients.
At the same time, Labour will train thousands more doctors and nurses by increasing training places. The curriculum will encourage a patient focus, instead of kowtowing to administrators.
