The Standard View: Happy 75th birthday, NHS. Time for a check-up

The National Health Service, free at the point of delivery, opened its doors 75 years ago today. It has survived 33 health secretaries, countless reorganisations and a pandemic to remain one of Britain’s most beloved institutions. There is more than one way to run a healthcare system, from private insurance to public provision, but this one is ours, and we should be rightly proud of it.

Yet Britons also agree that the NHS needs saving. Overall satisfaction levels have fallen to 29 per cent, the lowest level recorded since 1983, according to a survey by British Social Attitudes. This is hardly surprising when you consider that waiting lists hit 7.4 million at the end of April. Patients are also waiting longer to be seen at accident and emergency, fighting tooth and nail to see their GP, even fundraising to go private.

If you love something, and you want it to be better, you should fix it. That will cost money. Not least because Britain is growing older — the number of people aged over 85 is estimated to grow 55 per cent by 2037 — and so the pressure on health services will rise with it.

The NHS needs more doctors, nurses and support staff. The recently published NHS workforce plan is a vital start. There are currently 112,000 vacancies in the NHS in England, and if we took no further action we could witness a shortfall of up to 360,000 in the coming years.

The health service requires greater capital investment, from CT and MRI scanners to hospital beds. We need to rebuild crumbling buildings, update antiquated IT systems and, critically, invest properly in social care. A lack of social care packages, low wages and tough conditions are a major factor behind the NHS backlog because hospitals cannot discharge patients.

But money alone will not address what ails the NHS. Investment must be spent wisely and be contingent on reform. The challenge for both main parties, but particularly Labour given its poll lead, is to spell out what those reforms entail and why they will improve patient outcomes. The public hears constantly that ‘prevention is better than cure’ or that we need a ‘holistic approach’ to healthcare, but what does that mean in practice? And if that will cost more money in the short-term, how will it be funded?

However long the waits at A&E — and they can be interminable — or however many times people must call their GP at 8am on the dot, it is worth re-stating: the care that patients receive is reliably superb. At its best, the NHS is a Rolls-Royce of a healthcare system, bursting with world-class clinicians who go out of their way to make patients feel at ease.

So happy birthday to the NHS, thank you for the lives you have saved and changed and the dignity you have afforded each of us in our moments of need.