Reaffirming our commitment to the NHS is needed now more than ever

Abstract

There have been at least two independent commissions on the NHS—The Times and The BMJ—in the past year. Recently Ara Darzi’s report on the current state of the NHS was published. Although the findings of these commissions and Darzi’s report were not a surprise, it is devastating to read of a system so stretched that in some places it is beyond breaking point. While the diagnosis is straightforward, the solutions are sadly not. The BMJ’s Commission on the Future of the NHS was established from the perspective that a high-quality health service free for all at the point of care is too precious to be allowed to fail.1 Our aim was to identify the key challenges, but crucially to make recommendations targeted at ensuring that the vision of the NHS is realised. #### The acute response: Where do we begin? The BMJ commission recommended a relaunch of a new NHS as a whole country effort, with all the different stakeholders uniting in support of a high-quality accessible health service free at the point of care.2 We also recommended a cross-government and cross-sector strategy for health, care, and wellbeing. As part of this new approach, the commission proposed that an Independent Office for NHS Policy and Budgetary Responsibility for England be established to provide unbiased, robust reports on health and healthcare.3 A five year detailed strategic plan needs to be created, supported by a robust financial settlement over five to 10 years. However, to tackle the current NHS crisis, the commissioners recommend that we need an immediate cash injection of £32 billion (£37 billion was recommended by the Darzi report) to recover the loss of investment over the decade from 2010 to 2020, in order to help tackle the surgery …