There’s one fatal flaw in how this government sees the NHS

Even if we were to accept the approach of running the health service like a business, no CEO would expect reform when facing record numbers of workforce vacancies and a lack of investment in core services, writes Ian Hamilton

No amount of reorganisation will solve the shortage in funding that the NHS faces (EPA)

Every secretary of state for health and social care shares the same irresistible urge to reorganise the NHS. The current incumbent, Steve Barclay, has recently announced that he too will have a go.

The respected health economist Alan Maynard referred to these efforts as the “redisorganisation” of the NHS. One of his many criticisms was that none of these reorganisations were evaluated, so how could anyone judge whether they made things better or worse?

Barely a day goes by without another tragic story of a premature death attributed to a delay in an ambulance arriving or of an extended waiting time in A&E. These anecdotes are supported by the data, which reveals record waits for ambulances and days (rather than hours) spent in emergency departments waiting for treatment.