Commenting on the publication of Lord Darzi's Independent
Investigation of the National Health Service in England,
Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King's
Fund said:
‘This is an authoritative and sobering articulation of what
patients have been telling us for some time – services are
stretched to breaking point and people are losing faith that
support will be there when they need it.
‘The report is more than a gloomy assessment of how long it will
take to recover services, it is a mandate for government to take
bold, decisive action.
‘The biggest improvements to health and care in our country will
come from prioritising services outside of hospital. That means
greater investment in the primary and community services that
support people before they end up needing hospital treatment. It
means political focus on public health strategies that keep
people healthy and preventing illness in the first place. And it
means finally getting to grips with the much-needed reform of
adult social care.
‘Lord Darzi's report also underscores the need to move beyond
past lazy criticism of the value of NHS managers and instead
recognise that implementing major improvement of the health
service requires investment in high quality leaders.
‘Ministers now face tough trade-offs between tackling immediate
NHS pressures, or prioritising reform of the root causes of the
crisis. Today's report makes clear that incremental improvement
will not do – radical change is needed.
‘The task is not simply to prop the NHS back up, it is to create
a new approach to health and care in this country.'
