The NHS is in crisis – even the Conservatives admit it now

Editorial: The NHS in England cannot wait for a new prime minister to be in post to tackle the crisis it faces right now

Those inside the NHS have understood for many months what is going on and what has been going wrong (PA)

Perhaps because of his fanatical loyalty to Boris Johnson – serving as his final chief of staff under bunker conditions – Steve Barclay MP has never given the impression of being a soft touch.

Now, as health secretary in what is supposed to be a “caretaker” government, and thus not designed for radical action, even Mr Barclay sees fit to raise the alarm about the state of the NHS. If he shows such concern, things must be bad.

The NHS in England cannot wait for a new prime minister to be in post to tackle the crisis it faces, Mr Barclay warns. Our hospitals could see “very serious challenges coming down the track” in the autumn and winter from flu and another Covid wave, he adds.

The sad truth, though, is the public, the government and, most painfully, those inside the NHS have understood for many months what is going on and what has been going wrong. The nation has become strangely accustomed to calling 999 and then waiting for many hours for an ambulance to turn up. Lives have undoubtedly been lost and life-changing illnesses left unattended for too long, in ambulances, in A&E and in primary care.

The NHS is suffering from its own version of long Covid, which was caused by ministers locking down too late and unlocking too early during the various waves since 2020. Modest public health precautions between and after lockdowns, such as masks, self-isolation and social distancing, were spurned. The latest wave of the Omicron subvariants, though milder, have also damaged staffing levels.

Whether or not it was necessary to “save” the economy, this careless record of managing Covid has left the NHS with a huge backlog of non-Covid cases, and the government has not so far provided sufficient funding to clear it. The increase in national insurance designed to help ameliorate the backlog and boost social care (which also frees up hospital beds) is going to be rescinded by Liz Truss if she wins the leadership election.

It is all too obvious, and it has not taken long for Mr Barclay to realise the scale of the crisis – and the political damage it can inflict on this hapless administration. Ms Truss should probably not use the word “handout” to Mr Barclay (assuming he survives).

Similarly, the BBC’s new survey of dental care merely highlights the distressing situation faced by the dental service, which has been largely and stealthily privatised, just as optical services were before. “Teeth’n’specs” were always the most vulnerable parts of the NHS, almost since its inception, and the first to be charged for and the easiest to wind down.

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Given the cost of living crisis, the UK has been reduced to having its citizens go back to pre-war methods of DIY dentistry, pulling out teeth at home and hoping for the best. It is not the mark of a healthy or civilised society that its members have to take pliers to their mouths to stop the pain.

As for Mr Barclay, he hasn’t chosen to repeat Rishi Sunak’s irrelevant proposal for a £10 charge for missed appointments – which was never going to be a game changer in a system designed to deal with no-shows. Instead, the health secretary argues that hiring more foreign nurses to help in social care might relieve pressures on hospital beds by speeding up discharge times. Indeed, there are around 110,000 NHS vacancies, and it has to be said that Brexit has played an unhelpful role in keeping health and social care running during these extraordinary times.

As a result, and with inflation expected to reach 13 per cent, there are also demands for more pay, which will be challenging to fund. Industrial action cannot be ruled out. Mr Barclay may be excused for feeling nostalgic for the relatively calm of running the last-ditch defence of Mr Johnson’s final days in the Downing Street bunker.